After much public discussion followed by a 20-minute closed session, the Globe City Council decided unanimously to revisit the issue of refuse service for city residents at its next meeting.

It is scheduled to be on the agenda for the council’s regular meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 28 in council chambers, 150 N. Pine St., in Globe.

At last Tuesday’s meeting, Regional Director Jeremy Takas, with Right Away Disposal (RAD), reported to the council on company issues as well as the state of the recycling industry.

RAD’s issues included turnover among drivers, with none working now from the Cobre Valley area; potentially dangerous alleys due to clearance issues and low-hanging wires; and potentially dangerous street situations, such as the garbage truck drivers having to back long distances.

On the subject of service changes, such as placing trash cans into the streets instead of alleys, Takas said that residents were to have been notified by tags placed on the cans.

As to the state of recycling, Takas indicated that the market has bottomed out, cutting into RAD’s profit margin.

“It’s the worst it’s been in 35 years,” he told the council.

Takas explained that the company collected the recyclables, selling them profitably on the open market. 

However, in recent years, the market has dropped to a point where RAD nearly has to pay to dispose of them rather than receiving money for the recyclables. 

For this reason, Takas proposed that, in the future, RAD’s contract with the city allow for recyclables to be disposed of in a landfill instead of transported to a Valley recycling facility.

After Takas concluded his presentation council members, as well as several Globe residents, voiced their frustration about customer service issues.

They included cans missed on pick-up days, causing overflow and messes; lack of notification about moving cans from the alleys to the streets; and difficulties among the elderly, the disabled or both in moving the cans.

Other issues included cans in the streets becoming traffic hazards and/or being knocked over by the wind or animals; costs associated with recyclables picked up but not recycled and taken to the landfill instead, which some residents and council members described as fraud.

Takas later reminded both residents and council that currently the recyclables are transported to the Valley for recycling, but that RAD planned to propose “putting a hold on that” until the market changes.

Another frustration voiced by both council and citizens was slow or zero response from RAD’s office to customer complaints about the conditions.

Takas responded, saying that he would look into the complaints he heard at the May 14 meeting and make changes, accordingly, including continued attempts to hire locally, prompting John Cornell to offer free radio advertising “until the whole staff is local.”

After the council emerged from its executive session, Councilman Freddy Rios was the first to speak, pointed out that RAD has provided service to the city for nearly a decade. 

He acknowledged that while the issues in the last six months were many, they were  “not critical enough for the council to make an adverse decision” at this time.

Rios asked Takas to put in writing how he planned to address the issues and bring the plan back to council.

Having worked at a utility company 35 years, Rios said he knows it is better to “take care of a problem when it’s a whisper, not a scream.”

Globe Mayor Al Gameros reiterated Rios’s comments, saying “We’d like to get that in writing to see what changes are going to occur.”

The council then voted unanimously to direct City Manager Paul Jepson to “iron things out” with Takas report back at the May 28 meeting.

Since Jan. 1, 2011, RAD — established in 2007 and based in Apache Junction — has handled the city’s garbage pickup and disposal. The company provided each resident and business with both a trash can and a can for recyclables, picked up once a week.

In 2016, RAD was awarded the contract again after the city sought bids for its garbage and recycle collection services, Jepson told the Silver Belt.

About a year ago, RAD was acquired by a larger firm — Waste Connections, based in the U.S. and Canada — which has been upgrading equipment as well as addressing safety concerns, he said.