GREEN RIVER — The Green River City Council expressed support for the year-round yard waste pick up to change, removing about 10 weeks of service during the winter.
Michelle Foote, site manager of Wyoming Waste Services, told the Council that Wyoming Waste would like to amend their contract with the city so that the yard waste services would not be offered during the winter months. Due to a lack of yard waste once the snow falls, Foote said they would like to not provide the service from mid-November through April. She said there would also be one week of yard waste pickup in January for Christmas trees.
If residents did have yard waste during those 10 weeks, Foote said they would still be able to drop it off at the transfer station. Foote also said that yard waste services could change year to year, depending on weather. She said that Wyoming Waste can communicate with the Council and with residents if they are going to stop yard waste pick up for the year early or later, depending on the number of leaves and snowfall each November and December.
Mayor Pete Rust said the Council seems to be in support of the change and noted that there may be some cost savings as well.
“The time frame that you’re looking at, from what I’ve heard from the Council, I think is fairly well supported. It makes sense,” Rust said.
City staff will prepare a resolution for the next meeting on Dec. 19 where the Council will consider approval of making the change.
Wyoming Waste Updates
Foote updated the Council with end of year statistics and informed them of the upcoming rate increase. Wyoming Waste is allowed to use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as prepared by the United States Department of Labor Statistics to adjust rates each year. In using the CPI from September 2022 to September 2023, the rate increase is listed at 3.7%.
The increase, around $1.46, will raise rates from $39.42 to around $40.88. This will also be applied to the transfer station, raising the tonnage rate from $90.67 to $94.02.
“The price increase will be effective January 1, 2024. The increase will affect all commercial and residential customers,” Foote said.
Foote said that they have seen 2,193 residents use the transfer station, year to date. “This is actually up 23 residents over last year,” she said.
Of those residents, 502 have disposed of 1,000 pounds or more, and 167 residents have disposed of 1,800 pounds or more.
“The average for this, per resident, is 626 pounds, and that’s up 89 pounds from 2022,” Foote said.
Additionally, she said that Wyoming Waste has hauled 136 tons of recyclable materials to the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Salt Lake City, year to date. This is about 272,500 pounds of materials.
Lastly, she said that as both Christmas and New Years Day fall on Mondays this year, all services will be delayed one day on both of those weeks.