Toledo back to former holiday trash plan

8/30/2007

The city of Toledo's decision not to collect trash for those residents whose garbage would have been collected on July 4 until the following week - a move that saved $40,000 in overtime pay - won't be repeated for Labor Day.

The Finkbeiner administration announced yesterday that everybody's trash will be picked up next week, but on a delayed schedule.

That means those who normally have their refuse picked up on Monday will have it picked up on Tuesday, and so on through the week. Those who are picked up on Friday will have their garbage picked up on Saturday, for which refuse workers will be paid overtime.

In July, trash that would have been collected on Independence Day - a Wednesday - was left to wait until the following week.

The plan was an experiment in trying to curb the high cost of city overtime pay, but officials found the uproar more costly than the overtime savings.

At the time, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner said his staff didn't do a good enough job of alerting the public of the change in a long-standing holiday routine, and he said the practice would not be repeated on Labor Day.

Chief of Staff Robert Reinbolt said yesterday some major changes are being planned, but haven't been agreed upon yet.

He said the city of Columbus plan has a lot of support, but that it would require a major educational effort.

Columbus uses color-coded days - ruby, navy, gold, gray, and pink - rather than regular assigned days. After a holiday, everybody's trash collection simply moves to the next business day.

"We're working on redesigning and reducing the number of routes we have," spokesman Brian Schwartz said.