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Business..................A17 Church Directory....C4 Classifieds ................C8 Editorial.......................A6 Library.........................C6 Lifestyle......................C1 On The Town.........A18 Police Blotters..........A16 School News..............C5 West Side Sports ..B1 X-perts.....................C10

A N EWS PAPE R OF G E N E RAL CI RCU LATION I N LORAI N COU NTY S I NCE 1951

S E RVI NG AVON AVON L AKE S H E FFI E LD V I LLAG E S H E FFI E LD L AKE

6 2nd Year, No. 4 4
Copyright 2013

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October 3 0, 2 0 13

2013 Osman C. Hooper Awards

for News Coverage, In-Depth Reporting and Best Local Feature

75

Avon Lakes new trash contract includes carts, lowers fees

AVON LAKE
By Bryan Wroten

THE STATE FIRE MARSHALS office is assisting Sheffield Lake investigators in finding the origin and cause of an early-morning fire at a Thelma Drive home on Oct. 23. Press photo John Edwards

Thelma Drive house fire under investigation

S HEFFIELD L AKE
By John Edwards

Sheffield Lake fire Chief Tim Card reported on Oct. 24 that the state fire marshals office is assisting Sheffield Lake investigators in finding the origin and cause of an early-morning fire at a Thelma Drive home on Oct. 23. According to a report released by Card, the fire department responded to a house fire at 324 Thelma Drive at 7:40 a.m. on Oct. 23. When firefighters arrived they found the single-story house ablaze, with fire venting from the front windows, Card said. He reported that the fire department made entry from the front door and had to

knock the fire down before completing the primary search, during which they found an elderly man seated on his bed. The mans bedroom door was closed, so there was very little smoke in the room. The elderly man was removed from the house by the SLFD crew and then transported to Elyria Memorial Hospital by the Elyria Township rescue squad. Card said the fire was under control at 7:54 a.m. and declared out at 8:01. The Sheffield Village, Avon, Avon Lake, Sheffield Township and Elyria Township fire departments all responded to give mutual aid at the house fire. Card said damage estimates are not yet available.

City Council approved Monday night a new trash pickup contract with Browning-Ferris Industries, lowering the quarterly fees for residents while expanding the cart pickup program citywide. The new five-year contract will become effective Jan. 1, 2014, but will take a few months to roll out to the entire city. The new contract keeps Monday pickup for all residents and yard waste collection, but moving to the cart system would mean a once-a-month bulk pickup instead of unlimited pickup every week. Browning-Ferris is a subsidiary of Republic Services, which currently handles Avon Lake solid waste pickup. We will see real, tangible results for residents for real, lower trash bills for our residents in January, Ward 1 Councilman Rob James said before the vote. In the Public Service Committee meeting preceding the council meeting, engineering manager and interim service Director Joe Reitz explained of the three bids that came back from the four competing companies, Republic Services bids offered everything the city requested and provide cart sizing and pricing choices to residents that would still be lower than what they now pay quarterly. Residents currently pay about $56.31 a quarter. Based on the bid from Republic Services, the cart program offers residents a choice of a 96-gallon cart for $49.35 a quarter, a 64-gallon cart for $44.40 a quarter or a 32-gallon cart for $39.96 a quarter. Each cart size comes with a 64-gallon recycling cart. Those who want a second 96-gallon cart can pay an extra $10.96 a quarter, he said. Residents could also choose an al-

ternate bid plan that has unlimited pickup, as is the current program for most of the city, for $51 a quarter, but it does not include carts and would have limited recycling. The recycling cart system will let residents recycle 50 to 80 percent more items than they can currently, said Dave Kidder, municipal services manager for Republic Services. James, who heads the Public Services Committee, said he will talk with the mayor about arranging a public meeting with Republic Services that would give residents a chance to ask questions about the new contract. Having a public meeting is great idea, Kidder said, and the company would participate. It takes care of a lot of questions ahead of time, he said. The company will also send out mailers to customers to provide information about the program, and how to sign up for the different carts. The city currently has a cart pilot program comprising about 1,200 homes, Eric VanHouten, general manager for Republic Services, said. Because of that, the cart rollout may come sooner, but it still depends on the weather. Its difficult to deliver new carts when it snows, he said. Avon Lake previously bid out its contract with a consortium of Lorain County townships. While the townships found the bid results favorable, the bids either came in too high for Avon Lake or didn't include enough of its bid requirements. The city rebid the contract with the help of the consortium, through which it received these new results.
Contact Bryan Wroten at bwroten@2presspapers.com and @BryanWroten on Twitter

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