West Plains City Council to consider sanitation changes

On Monday, May 16, the West Plains City Council met in regular session. During the meeting council passed the first reading of Ordinance 4713, which would require all residential refuse to be collected curbside and not in alleyways.

Currently, a little more than 600 residences in West Plains have their refuse collected in alleys. If the ordinance passes in June, those 600 plus residences would begin placing their refuse at the front curb.

Safety is the number one reason for this proposed change.

“Keeping our sanitation workers and the community safe is our number one objective in this proposed change,” said Public Works Director Jeff Hanshaw. “We have a number of alleys where we have to back the trucks down the alleys which is a safety risk.”

“In addition, we are having to do regular alley maintenance. We are causing damage to the alleys by having our trash trucks run up and down them weekly.”

If the second reading of the ordinance passes, the new sanitation routes would begin running July 1.

You can contact the Sanitation Department for questions pertaining to your individual routes by calling 417-255-2330.