HIGHFILL — Town council members authorized Mayor Chris Holland to solicit proposals for a solid waste disposal franchise and passed on its first reading an ordinance providing for the regulation of solid waste collection and recycling within the town of Highfill.

“Currently, there is nothing we can do when people call in with problems with their trash service,” Holland said. “We first started talking about this four years ago, but people were happy with what we had at the time. Now, we have so many complaints of bills going up and trash not being picked up,” he said.

Holland said that, with new subdivisions being built, it was time for the city to begin providing the service to residents.

A city contract, he said, could potentially lower trash bills for residents and will give customers a way to resolve issues with the contracted trash company.

The new service, when it goes into effect, would be for residential customers and not farms or commercial customers, Holland explained. Provisions would also be made for those under contract witha trash service, he said. Billing would be handled through the city office, he said, with the city collecting a small fee to pay for the billing.

“We’re going to do this to make it a little bit different than other communities, but best for our community,” Holland said.

The ordinance was passed on a first reading to allow Highfill residents opportunity to review it and offer comments and suggestions and to give the mayor time to solicit bids for residential solid waste pickup. The ordinance will be brought back for a second reading in August and, if passed on a third reading in September, go into affect following the September meeting.Bid proposals will also be brought back to the council before a trash contract is awarded.

The ordinance and a resolution authoring Holland to seek bids were passed by the unanimous vote of members present: Richard Boles, Sandy Evans, Toby Lester and Keven Varner.

In other business, the council approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to apply for a $90,000 GIFfunded community grant for storm sirens within the city.

Council member Richard Boles requested that an ordinance be preparedbanning the use of truck engine brakes within city limits.

Fire Chief Jeremy Jackson said the matter had come up before and he personally opposed it because of safety concerns. Jackson said the brakes enable truck drivers to slow their heavy rigs more quickly and may prevent accidents on the many hills and curves within the town’s limits.

City Attorney Steve Miller will prepare an ordinance for consideration at the August council meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 16.

Also reported at the July 13 meeting was the special $1.50-per-meter fee which will be charged by the Benton-Washington Regional Public Water Authority to cover its financial shortfall due to a bank error in calculating bonded debt payments and lower than expected water sales. The $1.50 per month charge will be passed on to water customers, Highfill water supervisor Frank Holzkamper reported. The $1.50 per month charge will be assessed from Oct. 2010 through Dec. 2011 to water service providers using BWRPWA water.

The special assessment will automatically sunset unless the BWRPWA board votes to renew or extend it.

News, Pages 6 on 07/28/2010