Rolling Meadows mulls 4-day garbage collection

With preliminary budget discussion under way and a possible tax levy increase on the table, Rolling Meadows is looking everywhere for ways to save money — even in the trash.

The public works department and city council have been discussing ideas for saving money on refuse collection, including the idea of moving to a four-day pickup schedule rather than five.

Rolling Meadows is one of the few suburbs that still collects its own garbage rather than outsourcing it to a private waste hauler.

The city council first inquired this summer about the four-day idea as a way to save on overtime. Overtime for garbage pickup costs about $8,000 annually, primarily due to weeks with a holiday in them.

However, Public Works Director Fred Vogt presented an analysis to aldermen this week that said the idea would not only not save money, but cost even more.

The department would have to collect an average of 1,500 customers a day instead of 1,200, which Vogt said could not be done without significant overtime. Vogt said that with long days, yard waste pickups, weather concerns and equipment malfunctions, he can guarantee there will be overtime costs.

Aldermen were not discouraged from pursuing the idea further. Alderman John D’Astice said he still has questions about what is considered overtime and will ask the city manager for a clearer answer.

Some council members expressed doubt, questioning why employees could not simply work more efficiently and make the four-day week work.

Alderman Brad Judd brought up the idea of using automated trucks to dump garbage from each house more quickly. Vogt said that would have to be phased in as trucks are replaced over of several years.

Another issue is that as a member of the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, Rolling Meadows dumps its refuse at the Glenview Transfer Station, which is more than an hour round trip from the city.

As many city council members pointed out, there is a dumping station in Rolling Meadows, but due to contracts with SWANCC and with Veolia, which rents out the Rolling Meadows space, the city can’t even dump its garbage in its own backyard.

“We’re kind of in handcuffs there because the contract goes through 2015,” said Alderman Mike Cannon. “We own the land underneath, but we can’t use it.”

The committee of the whole may have left the issue up in the air on Tuesday, but Cannon said refuse collection will continue to be a topic as the city tries to make each area of the budget self-sustainable and avoid a deficit for 2012.

He added that said part of the difficulty is that the refuse collectors have other responsibilities to do for the city, which muddies the lines between departments.

“It sounds simple, but it’s been harder than we thought to do,” Cannon said.