Still shot from Amwaste promotional video
An Amwaste truck picks up garbage.
Homewood’s days of handling its own garbage and recycling will soon come to an end, as the City Council decided on July 17 to enter into a contract with the Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority.
The authority, in turn, has a contract with Amwaste to pick up the garbage and recyclables. The change will be implemented Aug. 1.
Residents still will have garbage picked up two days a week (either Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday), but recyclables will be picked up once a week instead of once every other week, city officials said.
Recyclables and garbage can be mixed in the same blue recycling can on the first pickup of the week, and the recyclables will be sorted out at RePower South in Montgomery, officials said.
Back-door pickup will only be offered to residents over 65 years old or with a disability, instead of to everyone.
The change in garbage service was not taken lightly and was predicated by staffing shortages and rising costs, Homewood Mayor Patrick McClusky said.
Councilman Walter Jones said the annual cost to the city should drop from $3.1 million to $1.57 million. Residents are not billed a separate fee for garbage and recycling service.
McClusky said the changes not only help the city from budgetary standpoint. “It also helps in the fact that we’re getting recycling once a week instead of once every other week,” he said. “We’re also going to be able to recycle more items.
According to McClusky, the city no longer has the manpower to provide the service, as it is 70% short of the desired number of staff.
Councilwoman Barry Smith said the city currently is down 11 employees in that department and expects to be down 13 by the end of the week.
“We have a lot of our street employees running trash routes … but that’s not what they were hired to do, and it’s not necessarily what they want to be doing,” Smith said. “I feel that this change is going to give us a more dedicated service. It’s going to make sure that our citizens are getting the service that they deserve.”
Jones said it has been a struggle and said Public Services Director Berkley Squires had done everything possible to address the challenge.
“I have not really wanted to do this, but we are at that point where there is really not an option,” Jones said. “We have really studied it as a council; the mayor has done a lot of work, and Berkley has worked as well. I think it’s going to be a good decision going forward.”
Jones said current Sanitation Department workers “have worked their rear ends off for the city of Homewood, and we absolutely appreciate every single one of them. … This is just a time that we had to make a decision.”
Squires said in a recent Finance Committee meeting that staffing for garbage and trash collection became particularly challenging during the pandemic and hasn’t eased since.
McClusky said all current Homewood Sanitation Department employees have been offered jobs with the Homewood Street Department. As for the city’s garbage trucks, they will be auctioned off using the standard procedure for all city-owned items deemed surplus, he said.
Homewood’s contract with the Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority is for eight years and two months. That consortium is a group of cities working together to create efficiencies and cost savings related to garbage and recycling pickup. Hoover, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Trussville, Fultondale, Clanton and Pelham also are part of that group, according to Jeff Downes, Vestavia Hills’ city manager.
Residents can visit cityofhomewood.com/garbage to learn more about the upcoming garbage and recycling changes and read a statement from McClusky.
Also during Monday's City Council meeting:
- The council appointed George Culver to the at-large position on the city’s Arts Council. The panel will likely appoint a Ward 3 representative to the Historic Preservation Committee at an upcoming meeting. Applications for the Ward 4 post on that committee will be accepted at 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 28. The mayor appointed Gusty Gulas to the city’s Planning Commission.
- A low bid of $246,941 was accepted from CB&A to work on the Saulter Road Pocket Park project.
- The council approved the installation of termite bond stations in the right of way at 2844 18th St. S. Those stations will be installed in the asphalt parking area instead of on the sidewalk.
- The panel vacated a permanent easement at Second Presbyterian Church, declaring the easement surplus property and vacating it via a quick claim deed.
- A public hearing was set for 6 p.m. on July 31 to consider declaring properties at 55 Bagby Drive and 65 Bagby Drive a public nuisance due to high weeds and/or grass.
- A public hearing was set for 6 p.m. on Aug. 14 for final approval of a development plan for 815 Green Springs Highway for a proposed redevelopment of a 4-acre site for a mixed-use development to be called “The Edge.”
- The council granted a retail liquor license for Otey’s Tavern at 930 Oxmoor Rd., pending approval by the Fire Department.
