Owosso ties single-hauler trash plan to state recycling law, Oct. 5
The city's hearing notice says exclusive garbage contracts are meant to meet a 2022 state requirement that 90% of single-family homes have curbside recycling.
Owosso has now said, in writing, why it wants to pick one trash company for the whole city: state recycling law. The city posted formal notice Thursday of a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, in the City Hall Council Chamber, 301 W. Main St., on a proposal to authorize exclusive contracts for residential refuse, garbage and recycling collection.
The notice says the change is intended to comply with the 2022 revision to Section 115 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, which requires that 90% of single-family homes have access to curbside recycling. Under an exclusive contract, one company serves all residential customers in a defined area rather than households each hiring their own hauler.
That is the first public explanation the city has attached to the proposal. The Current reported that the council directed the city attorney on Aug. 17 to draft an ordinance authorizing one trash hauler citywide, and that at the council's Sept. 8 meeting trash haulers and residents objected to the idea. The owner of Kelly's Refuse asked the council to drop the plan.
The proposed language is an amendment to Chapter 34, Utilities and Services, of the city code. The city's notice links to that chapter for further information but does not, on its face, name a hauler, set a rate, state a contract term, or say what happens to customers who already have a contract with a private company.
Residents can comment in person at the Oct. 5 meeting, or send written comment to the city ahead of it. The notice says comments may be verbal or written and may be made during the meeting or before it.
The same Oct. 5 meeting carries a second public hearing, on an amendment to the city's parks ordinance that would prohibit camping on any property Owosso owns or controls. The Current reported on that notice Thursday as well.
What happens next: the hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, at City Hall. The city has not said whether the council intends to vote on the ordinance the same night, what a single-hauler contract would cost a household, or which company would get the work. Those answers are owed at or before the hearing, and we will be there for them.
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