Centralia City Manager Lowell Crow says Republic Services will add one or two more trucks in Centralia starting Tuesday as they try and catch up on trash collection following the heavy snow.
Crow updated the city council Monday night.
“We have areas and neighborhoods that they have not picked up in up to three weeks. They are going to pick up the extra bags. Part of the issues is they did have trucks that got stuck in the alley areas that we don’t plow on a regular basis. Those area’s are now thawing and they think they can now get their trucks down to that area.”
Crow says the city’s public works crews worked around the clock the day after the storm to clear streets. He notes the department has only one front end loader and five plow trucks, one of which broke down. In addition, Crow says the department was kept busy with waterline breaks both inside and outside of homes due to the extremely cold weather.
Members of the city council praised the crews on their work and getting the city streets opened.
The council unanimously decided to continue to conduct the council meetings via Zoom for another month due to on-going COVID-19 concerns and social distancing limiting public seating to just 12 seats.
Councilman David Sauer explained his concerns.
“Given the history of this stuff I think we have to give it another month. Keep it on the agenda I totally agree I want to go open as soon as we possibly can, but this is life to death with some people. A lot of folks around here are very independent, they don’t want to wear a mask, they won’t distance. It’s just problems that we don’t need.”
Councilman Spanky Smith noted while cases were down, he’s still concerned about the new strains that could still hit the US and felt it was better to be safe than sorry.
The council approved an $18,070 bid from Furlong Excavating, Inc. to replace the sewer force main on Greenview Road.
Tammy Patterson was appointed to the Veterans Affairs Committee.
The council declared Monday Supermarket Employee Day and Tuesday as Essential Worker Day to honor those who risked their personal safety and health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
