Mayor Tom Henry and members of Fort Wayne City Council agree residents should be compensated for late or missed garbage and recycling collection, but questions remain about how that should take place.
Earlier this month, 2nd District councilman Russ Jehl introduced a measure seeking a $12 credit for ratepayers. That could cost the city $960,000, with the funding covered by fines previously collected against solid waste management contractor, Red River.
Exactly how much Red River has and must still pay remains up for debate. So far Red River has been fined $294,000 for misses between April and June; no fines were levied for the first three months of the year, and everyone awaits the report on missed pickups between August and October.
Jehl says it’s difficult to move forward without a clear picture of the circumstances, and called for an independent analysis of what ratepayers should expect.
Red River has spent the month of November adapting to new routes, which were drawn up by Henry’s Working Group for Garbage & Recycling as a response to late or missed pickups. He says there have been “significantly fewer” calls to 311 as a result.
