Trash concerns addressed at Valley council meeting

BY JOHN BRICE

THE LAFAYETTE SUN

VALLEY — Issues over trash services were raised by two council members during their meeting in Valley on Monday Jan. 26. Council Member for District 4 Desmond Reece, touched on the topic first.

“Some citizens have stated how they have had some issues with 121 with not picking up their trash,” he said. “I talked to one of their drivers, and one of them has a robotic arm, so he doesn’t get out of the truck to pick up the trash. For the people that have that driver, there is nothing we can do. If it is in the trash bin, they are responsible for it, but anything that is sitting outside of the trash bin for that driver, we can’t do anything. But there is another driver, who gets out of his truck, and that is who I talked to today. He said as long as it is not excessive, above maybe two bags outside of the bin, he can work with it.”

Reece also said he received a complaint related to destructive driving around speed bumps.

“I had some concerns about a road in William Terrace,” he said “One of our citizens saw somebody riding around the speed bump and did damage to somebody’s property. I wanted to talk to Kendall and see if we had a few different options, and one was maybe extending it or putting a sign or something out there simply to impede them from going around the speed bump from continuing to damage or erode the road.”

Council Member for District 6 Jolanda Barnes also relayed concerns from citizens related to trash service.

“Similar to District 4, I have had complaints about the trash services,” she said. “We actually were tagged in some social media posts about those trash services being missed, left behind. I am aware that the ones that run in my area have the robotic arm as well. One other thing is the size of the can. They are smaller than the ones that we had previously. So I am not sure how to address that, other than possibly offering a second can at this point to the residents, maybe at a minimum markup or just at a passthrough cost — so that they are not having to have a burden because they have small cans.”

In Other Business:

• Recently sworn in Valley Police Chief Stacy Shirey announced that Capt. Chris Daniel was promoted to Assistant Chief of Police, Lt. Chris Davis was promoted to captain and assumed command of the Patrol Division and Lt. Lorenzo Harris was promoted to captain and assumed command of the Criminal Investigations Division.  Their new badges were pinned to their uniform shirt collars.

• During a brief public hearing before the regular meeting the abatement cost of $4,000 for 2808 16th Ave. was approved.

• There was a motion approved for the city to purchase a tract of land on Fob James Drive from Jeremy Colley.