Trash and Cash

VINCENNES, IND. (WTHI) -       A Wabash Valley community wants to stop throwing out money with the trash.

     Vincennes officials say their trash collection system is bleeding red ink that the city can't afford.

     The city is weighing its options before the city council makes changes.

     The official trash totes in Vincennes fill the streets on collection day.

     The city has long picked up the trash, but paying for it has become a hot issue.

     "Trash is a problem," said Vincennes Mayor Joe Yochum.  "For the last several years we've used a sticker system here in Vincennes and at the time it worked, but once we went to a tote system with a one armed truck. That system isn't working so well."

     The city's sticker system puts a fixed price on a bag of trash that should be enough to cover costs, but with no one checking inside the totes the city found it was picking up a lot of garbage that no one was paying for.

     Under the current system the city is losing $300,000 a year and officials say it's time for a change.

     That change could mean adding a trash enforcement officer and raising the price of stickers to cover the cost of the city continuing the service.

     Officials have also talked with a private contractor about taking over the trash collection at a fixed price.

     "It's time to solve the problem and move forward and hopefully from that day forward trash won't be an issue," said Yochum.

     And hopefully it will also stop being a cash drain on city hall.