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City Council Considers Changes to Waste Collection, Water Services

Cass Herrington
/
Peoria Public Radio

The single most expensive contract for the city of Peoria is solid waste collection.

To help look at future options, the city held an earlier public hearing. Residents said they would like increased recycling frequency and an extended yard waste collection season, which didn’t start until April this year. 

On Tues., Public Works Director Scott Reeise told the the city council those changes would add costs to a service that already is not covered by the fee residents pay.

“The solid waste collection service, the general fund is supporting it by about a half million dollars a year," Reeise said. "We also looked at what it would take to make it self-sustaining and that would be an additional two dollars a month.”

The council took no action but asked city staff to look at what services could be added to future contracts and whether the city should get into the solid waste collection business. Homeowners currently pay $168 a year for pickup of solid waste, yard waste and recycled materials.

During a lengthy meeting spanning nearly 5 hours, the Council also discussed whether it should buy the water company.

The first step would be to perform due diligence, whereby the city would determine the pros and cons of such a purchase. That process could cost the city up to one-million dollars, an amount that is not in the current budget. In remarks at the end of the meeting, Illinois American Water Company Senior Manager Roger Goodson said there are benefits of private ownership, like taxes the company pays and economies of scale in purchases.

"When purchasing pipes, hydrants, chemicals and other critical supplies, we pay significantly less than the city of Peoria would on their own," Goodson said. "In fact, water main costs about half as much for us than the it would for the city because of our purchasing power."

But former Peoria mayor Bud Grieves took issue with that.

"There’s going to have to be pipes replaced and so on, and so forth," Grieves said. "We’re going to have to do it or they’re going to have to do it. But it’s going to be cost plus with them, not with us."

Grieves also mentioned the water company needs a return on investment while the city, as a public body, would not. The council took no action.