Major garbage pick-up changes coming to City of Phillips

A Common Council meeting at City Hall brought about major changes to garbage pick-up in Phillips.My Price County / My Northern Wisconsin

At the November 8, 2022 Common Council meeting, a motion was passed that will affect all City of Phillips residents.

In the past, city residents would buy a sticker and put the sticker on their garbage bag. Even though garbage pick-up was facilitated by the city, the cost of the sticker covered the cost of the garbage pick-up, and there was no garbage cost to the city. Once a sticker was on the bag and the recycle bin was set out on the curb, the garbage service would then pick up their garbage and recyclables one day per week.

Starting sometime possibly in December or January, (as the city doesn't have a set date yet), things will change. The city will still contract with the garbage service to pick up recyclables placed in bins as the city has a grant for this service. These pick-ups may be weekly or every other week; the schedule has yet to be determined.

However, garbage bags will no longer be picked up at the curb with a sticker. Instead, residents will need to contract with a garbage service to get their garbage collected on a regular basis. The city will no longer facilitate this. Mostly likely, yard carts or dumpsters will have to be put out by each resident.

The City of Phillips made this motion at the Common Council meeting on November 8, 2022. It was passed unanimously. Mayor Charles Peterson said some residents would prefer to have the charge placed on their water bill, for example. However, the garbage pick-up service did not like this option because if a city resident did not pay their water bill, they would have been picking up garbage for free for three months and never get paid, according to the deputy clerk-treasurer, Autumn Gedde, who was asked about this days after the meeting. Therefore, putting the garbage bill on the water bill was not an option.

The city plans to give more information to residents in the near future once the contract details get straightened out.

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