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Minot council keeps fall curbside cleanup after staff outlines costs, safety concerns
Summary
Council voted unanimously to continue fall curbside cleanup after hearing staff estimate the operation uses roughly 50 staff, 2,000 hours and about $130,000 per event and that injury rates and opportunity costs are higher during the cleanup weeks.
The Minot City Council voted unanimously Feb. 3 to continue the city’s fall curbside cleanup program after staff presented operational costs and safety data and members debated alternatives.
City solid-waste staff told the council the spring and fall cleanup events require about 50 staff drawn from multiple departments, roughly 2,000 hours of labor and about 30 pieces of equipment. “Each event probably costs about a hundred and 30 ish thousand dollars,” the presenter said. Staff also reported a higher rate of employee injuries during cleanup weeks compared with routine operations and noted that most injuries occurred during the fall event.
Council members discussed whether the service could be eliminated to save money, moved to a different week or staggered (for example, spread across a month), and whether the bulk-item pickup program could be expanded or offered at a discounted rate during a cleanup week. Alderman Blessam urged continuing the service, saying it was part of the deal made when the city changed to the containerized collection system and that removing it without lowering rates would be unacceptable. “I am not about giving less service for the same dollars,” Blessam said.
Staff said they could continue to offer free dumping at the landfill and encourage use of scheduled bulk pickup as an alternative; bulk collection currently is $15 per large item and staff said they are exploring quantity-based pricing. Staff also said rescheduling the fall event to a different month would require additional calendar review because several other seasonal public-works activities—hot-mix paving, street repairs and storm-sewer work—are concentrated in the same window.
Council members suggested several possible refinements, including discounting bulk pickup during a cleanup week or spreading collections over multiple Wednesdays; staff cautioned that a longer staggered period could leave neighborhoods looking untidy for several weeks. The council directed staff to consider the suggestions and return with options; for the meeting the council approved a motion to continue offering the fall curbside pickup program.
Why it matters: The cleanup weeks draw substantial staff from multiple departments and take crews off other critical tasks at a time of year when street patching and storm-sewer work are also pressing. Staff described both an immediate budgetary cost and an “opportunity cost” of delayed infrastructure work when crews are redirected to cleanup events.
What happens next: Staff will take the council’s suggestions into account, investigate pricing options for bulk collection and return to the council with proposed alternatives or refinements before making any permanent changes to the program.
