Note: After the live broadcast, Mayor Brown indicated that she had misspoken during her comments on the recent criminal sting operation in Columbus. She said her intention was to say that those charged are innocent until proven guilty.
Bloomington city officials are engaging Columbus leaders on the issue of saving money on trash pickup as they work toward accomplishing a mandate from Mayor Mark Kruzan that the city save money. Speaking Wednesday on WFIU’s “Ask the Mayor,” City Councilman Marty Spechler asked Columbus Mayor Kristen Brown whether her city had saved money using trash trucks with automated arms to pick up waste receptacles, rather than a truck staffed with three city employees.
“Trash collection is very expensive, as we know in Bloomington and we’re trying to think and learn from the experience of similar cities like Columbus about whether we should go to automated trash collection.”
Brown says her city has found savings using the automated trucks.
“We can man a truck with one person instead of three,” Brown says. “We’ve significantly lowered our worker compensation claims because the folks that worked on the back of the truck collecting those garbage cans and getting them up in to the automated loader were subjected to injury.”
Spechler echoed Mayor Kruzan, calling trash fees an “onerous” part of the budget.