Rolling Meadows moves ahead on garbage collection study

Rolling Meadows officials will survey suburbs of similar size and demographics about their garbage collection programs as they continue to debate whether to turn their refuse system over to a private contractor.

Director of Public Works Fred Vogt said the 40-question surveys will help officials understand how other communities collect trash before they decide on proposed changes to the city's system.

"We tried to put as much here as we possibly could come up with to ultimately provide some comparisons," Vogt said.

City Council members have discussed ending garbage collection as a function of their public works department and instead hiring a private company to perform the work. Backers say the switch could save the city money, but the idea has been met with opposition from many residents.

Vogt said he plans to administer the survey in the next few weeks and report the findings at the council's Committee of the Whole meeting in July.

Mayor Ken Nelson said the survey would be "comparing apples to apples."