Council approves operations and infrastructure steps: trash carts, SRF project plan, HydroCorp inspections and special events
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Summary
Council unanimously approved procurement of replacement trash carts, authorized a Fishbeck project plan to pursue Drinking Water SRF funding for lead service line replacement, accepted a contract with HydroCorp for residential cross-connection inspections required by EGLE, and approved several special events and membership fees.
Trenton City Council voted unanimously on several operational items and project authorizations during its Feb. 2, 2026 meeting.
Trash carts: DPS staff (Mr. Sargent) said the city needs to restock automated trash carts and recommended purchasing replacement carts from Shaffer Plastics, which the city has used since 2007. The record shows a unit price of $51 per cart plus freight and a total purchase amount stated as $24,633. The transcript indicates the cart quantity as '4 55' which is unclear in the meeting record; the council moved and supported the purchase authorization and approved it unanimously. Mr. Sargent explained the carts have interchangeable lids and use the newer standardized size to improve handling and truck stacking.
Drinking Water SRF and lead service lines: Mr. Sargent briefed the council on the Michigan Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (FY27 funding noted in the record as $334,000,000) and said the city has about 125 lead service lines with an estimated total replacement cost of approximately $1,100,000. He requested authorization for Fishbeck (project engineer) to prepare the project plan to apply for SRF funds; the cost to prepare the plan was stated as $26,000, with funds available in the Water Fund contractual services account. The council moved, supported and approved that authorization unanimously.
Cross-connection inspections: Mr. Sargent also described a new, required residential cross-connection control program under Michigan's Safe Drinking Water Act, Part 14. The city contracted HydroCorp to perform residential inspections in batches (letters will be sent in batches of 100) with a goal of about 1,200 inspections per year; the inspection portion described in the record has no cost to homeowners, though testing of certain backflow devices (if present) would be a homeowner responsibility (estimated $50–$75). Mr. Sargent said inspectors will be branded with both City of Trenton and HydroCorp identification.
Special events and membership fees: The council approved a DDA-sponsored special event, the "Granny Tynes Cookie Crawl Bingo" (Feb. 7, 4–9 p.m.), with tickets at $30 and a DDA budget allocation (the DDA presented a $10,000 budget line but the presenter said the DDA would cover roughly half). Parks & Recreation director Tim presented a membership fee of $5,000 for Destination Downriver and the council approved paying the fee.
Administrative votes: The council also moved to receive and place on file a set of minutes and department reports and approved a motion to authorize disbursements as presented in the meeting record.
All of the motions in these operational items were recorded in the meeting as "moved and supported" and carried unanimously on the record.
