SE Illinois News

Fairfield City Council recently approved raising the cost of trash service to address the issue of nuisance garbage pickup across the city.

At the March 14 Fairfield City Council meeting, officials discussed garbage pickup and cleanup across the city. Residents, landlords, and city staff have complained of overflowing garbage or large refuse items in yards or around Dumpsters that sit for weeks at a time at many properties throughout the city.

Fairfield Mayor Mike Dreith acknowledged the problem, saying he and other city officials have been trying to work with landlords on the process for pickups for large items and informing residents and property owners that larger bulk items and overflow will not be picked up by the garbage service if left sitting by the curb.

"The landlords say, 'my tenant did it and I'm not responsible for it.' I understand that that mentality, you know. 'I didn't put it there, so why should I have to pay for it?' Dreith said. "I'm just looking for the path of least resistance so that we can keep this city to try to get it picked up. I've already instructed the street and bridge (department) to go around and pick up some some mattresses that have been laying out, that have have decayed in the front yard."

Dreith explained that the only process the city has in place to address the situation is to have police officers issue citations to residents who are not complying with garbage service rules and have excess garbage or large refuse items on their property. Citations will be processed by the municipal court, which meets monthly, who will then issue offenders a fine. Dreith acknowledged that this is not an instant or effective solution to the problem and will not help with the beautification of the city.

City council proposed raising the cost to residents by $4 to include bulk pickup of items in the regular route of their garbage service provider. Council members were concerned that this increase to regular garbage service still would not bring in enough money to address the issue. Council members didn’t want to have to raise utility costs but acknowledged that the cost would still be far cheaper than that of other nearby cities and would help improve the quality of their city. 

After a discussion, the council voted to increase the garbage utility fee to $10 a month to better cover some of these cleanup costs.