Summer Clean-up may move to fall

City Administrator Phillip Patterson sought the board’s opinion during the June 16 meeting on the possibility of moving Summer Clean-up to fall.

Summer Clean-up was initially supposed to be Spring Cleanup, but was rescheduled to take place sometime in July or August, according to a post on the city’s website. Patterson said he had the idea of moving Summer Clean-up because Fall Clean-up was scheduled to take place in October.

“It doesn’t make much sense to me if we do a clean-up in late

July/early August then we turn around less than three months almost and do a second cleanup,” Patterson said.

City Director Carol Smiley said Summer Clean-up is the number one question she has been asked.

“A lot of people have started cleaning before covid and now they have all of this stuff in their garage or backyard or somewhere and they want to get rid of it,” Smiley said.

Director Mindy Hunt asked if the city could move the clean-up to early September.

“Since we published it as July and early October it doesn’t make

much sense to have two of them that close together,” Hunt said.

Patterson said he would look into moving it to late September. The city administrator thinks if the city moves it to the third week of September it shouldn’t put off the clean-up much longer. He also said city staff has indicated they don’t pick up as much as they historically have and would like to move it to once a year.

“I think it’s going to be interesting to see what the numbers are and how much time we can do that,” Patterson said. “It may lead us to coming back to you as a board to request (in) 2021 doing it once a year.”

Director Reid Carroll addressed the limited operating hours of the transfer station. Carroll said one individual phoned him and said they work during the times the transfer station is open during the week and Saturday has too many people to ensure good social distancing.

Carroll said the individual asked if the city could extend the hours of the transfer station one day a week.

Patterson said he would discuss it with staff. He reminded the board the reason the transfer station is running on limited hours is so staff would have time to clean and disinfect the transfer station.

“If we opened it up for eight hours, then the city is now paying typically overtime for staff to do all the disinfecting that needs to be done on some of those pieces of equipment and within the office,” Patterson said.

Patterson said he could look and see if the transfer station could stay open an extra hour every day or have extended hours one day a week.

I t doesn’t make much sense to me if we do a clean-up in late July/early August then we turn around less than three months almost and do a second clean-up. Phillip Patterson Siloam Springs City Administrator