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Council approves bulk trash pickup

By Ashley Rader

After multiple requests from the citizens for more than two years, Elizabethton’s City Council approved the second reading of an ordinance to reinstate bulk trash pickup.

Council passed the first reading of the ordinance to reinstate bulk trash during the August meeting, however, Councilman Charles LaPorte asked Finance Director Jerome Kitchens to detail where the money would come from to cover the cost of restarting the service.

Kitchens informed council that for the street and sanitation department to pay for the bulk trash pickup the money would have to come from the street salt budget. The estimated cost to run bulk trash for nine months is $30,000. He said the salt budget was the only discretionary item in the department from where the funding could be taken and used for another cause. Kitchens explained that when there is a mild winter, like last year, the excess salt funds are used for other needs in the street and sanitation department, like road paving and sidewalk patching.