Walbridge: Mayor wary of more trash-hauling trucks

By: 
Larry Limpf

News Editor
news@presspublications.com

Letters are being mailed to trash haulers that provide curb-side service in the unincorporated areas of Lake Township, advising them there are no ‘through streets” for trucks in the village.
Mayor Ed Kolanko said the letters would be mailed to Waste Management, Rumpke, Modern Disposal, and Klumm Brothers, which had representatives at a Jan. 11 meeting at the township administration building.
Township trustees held the meeting to offer haulers a chance to provide information about their rates and services to township residents in the wake of the decision by Republic Services to not renew its service agreement with the township. That agreement ended Dec. 31 but the company agreed to continue to pick up trash and recyclable materials until the end of last month.
Mayor Kolanko said he is concerned the trucks of the haulers could criss-cross the village to reach the unincorporated parts of the village, damaging the village’s roads.
“My concern is the village,” he said. “When our village is surrounded in a lot of ways by Lake Township and these trash trucks are heavy trucks and over time they can cause damage to the roads. I don’t want to see four or five refuse companies passing through the village to get from one side of the township to the other.”
The mayor said the letters will include information about permits the village offers for through vehicles as well as the fines that can be imposed for violators.
“Heavy trucks are a part of the nature of the business. But I have taken the time and effort to apply for grants, with council support, to help get money to pay for the repaving of our roads. We’ve repaved our two main streets, Union and Main, in the past few years,” he said. “I don’t want to see us having to spend more taxpayer money to repair something that is caused by an entity that should not be driving through. I’m not creating new rules. I’m simply sharing the rules with the refuse companies and trying to protect the taxpayers of the village.”
The decision by Republic Services to not renew its agreement with the township doesn’t impact the villages of Walbridge or Millbury.
Walbridge has a 5-year contract with Republic Services that it renewed about 1 ½ years ago, the mayor said, adding the village was satisfied with the company’s service.
The Village of Millbury also contracts with Republic.

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