Harrisburg’s existing rules governing trash collection may soon get canned.
City Council is considering a new, more comprehensive sanitation ordinance that would usher in stronger enforcement tools and more efficient billing for its trash collection services and lay out clearer rules for city recycling programs, Mayor Eric Papenfuse announced tonight.
It would also waive annual trash fees for the owners of vacant lots and properties, eliminating an intensely unpopular provision of the current ordinance, Papenfuse said.
The revised sanitation code aims to curb the city’s perennial problems of illegal dumping and excessive trash accumulation. It would grant the city stronger enforcement powers by creating two categories of offenses and a new fine structure.
Under the proposed ordinance, serious offenses – including illegal dumping, accumulation of trash exceeding 1,000 pounds, improper waste disposal and failure to register as a private trash hauler – would be considered category 1 violations punishable by a $1,000 fine or up to 90 days in jail.
Category 2 violations are more minor acts that are likely to recur without deterrence, Papenfuse said. These violations, which include failure to bag waste, obstruction of streets and sidewalks or interference with enforcement, would be met with fines starting at $100. Fines would increase up to $500 for each subsequent offense.
The ordinance would also permit the Public Works Department to designate enforcement officers to patrol public streets for violations. It also would authorize police officers to issue citations and enforce the ordinance.
Papenfuse said that the new legislation also would codify the city’s free and mandatory recycling services, including its new glass recycling program.
“This will bring us into the new century in regard to recycling,” Papenfuse said. “We’ve more than tripled recycling in the last few years but very little is laid out in existing code.”
One of the most significant changes in the proposed ordinance is an annual billing structure designed to save money for the city and its residents.
Harrisburg residents currently make monthly payments for trash services. Under the new ordinance, the city treasurer’s office would include trash fees in property tax bills. The separate charges would appear on the same invoice and would be subject to the same due date and discount period.
Residents may opt out of once-yearly billing in favor of monthly direct deposit payments. However, those who pay their trash fees within 60 days of billing would receive a 2-percent discount.
City Treasurer Dan Miller said that streamlined bills would save the city $100,000 in mailing and labor costs each year. He also hopes it will increase the city’s collection rate and improve early-year cash flow.
Miller said that the city has a 98-percent collection rate for its real estate tax, with 70 percent of that revenue coming in during the 60-day discount period.
“We assume trash will be the same, which would increase cash flow and generate more interest for us throughout the year,” he said.
The city will host a series of public meetings to hear input and answer questions about the proposed ordinance. The first will be held on May 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the Public Works building on Paxton Street.
Council tonight also heard from members of the Harrisburg Police Bureau, who are asking for an additional $165,000 to construct a substation on S. 15th Street.
That sum represents a 13-percent increase over the project’s $817,000 budget.
City engineer Wayne Martin said that bids for the project came in above early estimates and insisted that the added cost was “not an unusual” margin for error in publicly bid projects.
Several council members lamented the fact that the project’s timeline has lagged as its costs increased.
“Three years ago, we planned a $300,000 precinct with a turnaround of three to six months,” Councilman Cornelius Johnson said. “Now, it’s more expensive, and it’s only a substation.”
Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Carter said that early plans to retrofit a facility at S. 15th Street became impossible once it was found to be structurally unsound. That structure was razed in December to make way for a new modular building.
Police officials say they don’t have enough manpower to staff a full-time precinct, but they still think a substation would benefit officers and residents. Carter reported that increased police presence in South Allison Hill has helped drive down homicides there this year.
“The cost is what it is, but I know that, since we’ve been concentrating on that area, we have not had homicides,” Carter said.
