Jill Schramm/MDN Garbage carts line the curb in a southwest Minot neighborhood Tuesday. The city adopted automated pickup using the carts in 2017 but general curbside pickup is allowed for a week each spring and fall.

A plan to do away with the City of Minot’s annual fall cleanup received a unanimous veto from the Minot City Council Monday.

Whether Minot sanitation customers will be able to clean out their clutter and set it on the curb next fall will depend on what might happen before then. The Utilities Department will take another look at fall cleanup week to see if there are potential changes that might satisfy the council.

The rationale for eliminating fall cleanup week was presented to the council in a memo from Utilities Director Jason Sorenson, who also explained his department’s position at Monday’s meeting.

Because of the scope of providing cleanup for more than 13,000 accounts, the city has called upon other city departments to assist sanitation crews, according to Sorenson. The Utilities Department estimates it takes about 50 people and 30 pieces of equipment to complete each spring and fall cleanup event, which each costs the city about $130,000.

Discontinuing the fall clean up week would allow the city to better utilize the 2,000 hours of staff time that is diverted. Free disposal still would be offered at the landfill for a week in the fall to city sanitation customers. The city also still would offer its bulk pickup service for a fee.

In addition to the loss of time spent on road maintenance and cleaning storm sewers due to the shifting of personnel, the city incurs a higher rate of employee injury during cleanup events, Sorenson said.

“If you compare these two weeks compared to regular, you have about a 400% greater chance of being injured during spring and fall clean up than you do during your regular work,” he said. “If you look at the history, since 2019 we’ve had 14 injuries at a real cost of $45,941.41 and then 104 time-lost days. And then, oddly enough, when you look at spring versus fall, the fall event accounted for 95% of the injuries,” Sorenson said.

That’s despite 480 tons collected on average in the spring and 300 tons in the fall.

“My point is, if we stop doing it, we’re not going to lower everybody’s trash rates to account for the $130,000, right? That’s not the proposal on the table. The proposal on the table is to stop doing it and still keep the same rates,” council member Mike Blessum said. “I am not about giving less service for the same dollars. I mean, that to me, is a given. If we are considering doing this, we would certainly need to give them a break on their pricing.”

Council member Rob Fuller mentioned the city’s promise that the city would offer two cleanup weeks a year when it adopted automated garbage pickup several years ago.

“To take services away I don’t think is a good idea, and I would be against it as well,” he said.

Council member Mark Jantzer asked about discounts on bulk pickups for a week if fall cleanup is eliminated. Sorenson responded it would be possible. The current collection rate for bulk items is $15 per item. The department is considering a modification of what constitutes bulky trash to take into account the amount as well as size of trash items, Sorenson said.

Olson suggested breaking the fall cleanup week into a day a week over a month to ease the impact on the city departments.

Sorenson replied once residents begin cleaning out their homes, those items go to the curb, so staggering the days won’t help.

“I think we’re going to have a pretty dirty looking city for probably a good six weeks, instead of just that couple weeks – maybe a week before and then the week of,” he said.

Mayor Tom Ross interpreted the council feedback as a request for a better plan.

“Come back with a plan that does the same thing but maybe takes a different look at it. I think it’d be something that the council would probably entertain. I just don’t think that plan is here yet,” he said.