Trash service back to the alley
About 2,500 Spokane households that were moved to curbside garbage-collection service in 2007 will be back to alley service Monday.
Affected residents loudly protested the initial change, which became a factor in last year’s mayoral election.
The city will restore alley trash service to all residents in the Logan, Emerson-Garfield, Nevada-Lidgerwood and North Hill neighborhoods. Door hangers explaining the change, which is effective Sept. 15, have been distributed to residents.
To accomplish the change, the city’s solid waste management department purchased two garbage trucks that are specially designed for alley pickup.
The trucks cost $645,000 and have dual arms so they can pick up trash cans from both sides of the alley.
“We were scheduled to purchase two trucks for yard waste pickup, but we are purchasing these two instead,” said Marlene Feist, spokeswoman for the city of Spokane. “They are slightly more expensive than regular garbage trucks, about $40,000 more apiece.”
The two trucks currently used for curbside pickup in those neighborhoods will pick up yard waste instead.
The end to alley pickup in those north Spokane neighborhoods – which was to be extended to other neighborhoods around the city – sparked a political storm in the middle of last year’s mayoral election. Utility officials said it was done to improve efficiency and reduce costs; residents complained the move was done without citizen input.
Then-Mayor Dennis Hession defended the move, although city officials promised to seek public comments before extending it to other alleys. His opponents in the city mayoral primary, including Mayor Mary Verner, who was a councilwoman at the time, were critical of it.
Some of the neighborhoods affected by the change gave large majorities to Verner in the November general election.
“We are implementing a change that just makes sense,” Verner said in a statement Monday. “We asked our citizens what works for them, found a cost-effective way to improve service and took action.”