ARMA, Kan. — The phrase “this is why we can’t have nice things” echoed throughout Arma City Hall Monday afternoon when city superintendent Austin Spragg shared his concerns regarding the city’s recent pick up initiative.
The annual pickup, which took place from June 8 to June 12, allowed residents to dispose of items such as furniture along the curb of their residences. A public works crew spent the week visiting each section of the city, where they picked up the trash and took it to bins. The work was coordinated by Spragg and his team.
There are rules for the annual pick up. Limbs, batteries, paint, tires, household trash, and limited construction materials are prohibited. But not everyone is privy to or seems to understand the rules. Last year alone, Spragg said, the city crew faced danger after picking up a propane tank, which could have exploded and injured many. Additional prohibited items that have been found in the pickup piles include glass and needles.
“Last year, we kind of played with the idea that maybe we might look at changing some things, even though it’s not fully desirable probably to all of the public,” said councilwoman Carma Burns. “However, it would still provide a service to the community.”
Along with prohibited items being dumped in the piles, the city pick up has become quite an expense for the city.
“This year, we made a list of what you can’t put in there,” said Spragg. “I didn’t think I had to put propane tanks in there and oxygen bottles, but people hide that, they hid it, they hid tires ... There were a couple of different piles that didn’t get picked up just for that reason. We had an employee, we picked up an old, used toilet, it shattered, and it cut him. Somebody is going to get hurt. We picked up a box, and they had screws, thousands and thousands of screws fall out.
“... I had GFL and I had to have Jones Land Service, with his dumpsters, come in because we could not keep up. As of today (Monday), there’s still four full GFL containers sitting out there. They hauled off three or four. Jake Jones actually came in the first or second day and stayed there the whole day with us ... I don’t know what those dumpster bills are going to cost. Fuel-wise, I’d say roughly over $2,000 just on fuel for this whole driving around and picking things up.”
Spragg presented two options for future pick-up events. The first option features the city's crew picking up piles as they usually do, but the pick up is limited to furniture only. The other option entails the city setting out dumpsters at the city dump and allowing only town residents to dump their items. Citizens would have to check with a gate attendant and show verification, such as a utility bill, that they are a citizen.
“It’s an unfortunate thing about this, doing it this way, but we’ve got to work on doing something different or somebody is going to get hurt. The city is going to keep spending money on doing this, we are going to go through tire after tire, equipment is getting used and aged when we do this,” said Spragg. “I know it’s something we do good for the community, but we’ve got to figure something else out.”
The council plans to revisit the topic at a later date but several expressed their interest in talking about the subject “sooner rather than later.”
The next council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, July 6. Meetings are held at the council meeting room next door to Arma City Hall, located at 701 E. Washington St. For more information or to be placed on the agenda, call the Arma City Hall at 620-347-4125.
This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews.
