STAUNTON – “The honeymoon is officially over, starting right now,” said City Manager Leslie Beauregard as she introduced Staunton Public Works Director Dave Irvin to the Staunton City Council during the July 25 work session.
Irvin was recently promoted from interim director to the full-time director of public works . When he took the reins at public works, he took interest in the city’s expected trash collection system update. This includes the often-asked-about, city-owned trash cans residents have expected since March 2023 .
The program was announced after the city received $850,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Due to timeline constraints on the funds, the city needs to decide how to spend the money by the end of 2024.
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What’s taking so long?
When the new trash collection program was announced, staff did not expect it to take as long as it has.
“As you know, the city embarked on a trash modernization program well over a year ago,” Irvin told Council. “It's been a long time. Unfortunately, at Public Works, we underwent some fairly significant and numerous personnel changes at the beginning of the calendar year. The program stalled.”
To get back on track, and on trash, public works formed a trash committee to restart the program. The committee meets weekly to “keep this thing moving forward.”
“It started with a review of where we were and we were a little dismayed at what we initially discovered,” Irvin said.
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Three components, three companies called
Getting new, city-owned trash cans to residents involves three components – truck mounted equipment to dump the cans, hardware and software to run the equipment, and the trash cans themselves. According to Irvin, the previous public works project only approached one vender each for cans, tippers, and software. The costs were based solely on the numbers from each vendor.
“We felt like a higher level of due diligence would be prudent,” Irvin said.
They reached out to other vendors and found better results. For example, the initial can vendor made their cans in Mexico. Public works found another company, Otto Cans, making similar cans in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Irvin and the committee decided to stick with the original software company, Rubicon, after contacting a few others. All of the cans will be RFID chip tagged and assigned to addresses through serial numbers.
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How big will the trashcans be?
A survey showed that 22% of Staunton residents wanted the smaller can size, 48 gallons, and 78% wanted the 96-gallon cans. This is not what public works plans to order.
According to Irvin, staff contacted Harrisonburg to ask for recommendations. Harrisonburg enacted a similar policy, buying several sizes. Many Harrisonburg residents who initially took a smaller can ultimately switched to the larger size. Irvin said Harrisonburg now has several hundred 48-gallon cans in their stockyard.
“We're anticipating that a lot of these folks are going to want the larger can,” Irvin said. “That's where the software, Rubicon, will help us track this. We already have a large list of folks with their preferences picked, but that survey only reached, and I don't know the amount, 15 or 18% of the folks. We've got 10,000 customers out there. If we're going to be making a major purchase on cans, based on can size, we really need to nail this down better than it is.”
Community meetings will be held to nail down the specific number of each type of can before the program’s cost can be finalized.
Tippers, tipping software and a few trashed drafts
Public works ordered two new refuse trucks from another company, both already outfitted with the tippers. The new trucks are expected to arrive between 18 and 24 months from now. Irvin acknowledged this is longer than public works would like for the program to begin. In the meantime, staff is looking to retrofit its current trucks with tippers, but they have not yet found a company to do this yet.
On the administrative side, the program is starting the policy update from scratch.
“We're going to have to rewrite this policy,” Irvin said. “We are currently on draft number five within our trash committee. Work in progress, but it's coming along quite well.”
When will all this be done? 'Everyone's gonna want their can'
“Dave, I got a call from a friend of mine that says ‘how many more times I gotta duct tape my trash can?’” said Mayor Steven Claffey. “He says ‘I'm ready to buy a new one,’ and I said ‘they're coming they're coming.’ Do you have any clue as to how much longer he has to keep duct taping?”
Irvin said Staunton asked Harrisonburg staff what they felt the timeline might be, based on the city’s previous experience.
“We were optimistic, thinking by the end of this year,” Irvin said. “They were pessimistic, basically saying that's not going to happen. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. I would anticipate our goal is to try to begin rolling out cans after the holidays in December.”
Irvin expects it will take some time to get all the cans distributed after they arrive. Public works staff will have to assemble them before they are sent out. The cans will then be delivered based on the normal trash pick-up schedule.
“This isn't going to happen overnight,” Irvin said. “Again, 10,000 customers, everyone's going to want their can and they're going to want it now.”
A pilot program is expected to start soon.
Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is the public transparency and justice reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? It’s welcome through email to lbordelon@gannett.com . Subscribe to us at newsleader.com .
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Staunton Public Works director gives timeline, update on new trash cans
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