For those waiting weeks for weeks for yard waste to be picked up, help could be on the way. The Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee on Tuesday approved allocating $4 million for trash pickup from the city’s federal COVID relief dollars.
The $141 million spending plan is now heading to the City Council. Part of the money set to go toward pay raises was reallocated Tuesday to fund COVID testing, disaster management and garbage pickup. The plan still includes $11 million for city pay raises.
The mayor’s office said it's working out the details of how to spend the proposed $4 million to fix garbage collection problems.
“There's several solutions that we're working on right now, and as soon as we get all of that worked out, that's what this funding will be used for,” Stephanie Burch from the mayor’s office said.
Mandarin City Councilman Michael Boylan said he’s received an onslaught of complaints about trash sitting out on people’s curbs.
“I would welcome the communication of knowing what those plans are, because I'm getting an awful lot of questions about it,” Boylan said.
The trash pickup money is part of the $171 million dollars the city was granted through the federal American Rescue Plan. The city allocated $30 million earlier this year.
The proposal for the remaining dollars includes $50 million for septic tank removal, $24 million for road resurfacing and about $4 million for affordable housing — all part of the overall budget for the new fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
City Council is set to take up the proposal when they meet September 28.
Contact Claire Heddles at cheddles@wjct.org, (904) 250 - 0926, or on Twitter at @claireheddles.
