TOP STORY > >Trash rates won’t go up as much in Jacksonville

By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer

Garbage rates are going up in Jacksonville, but not as much or as quickly as originally planned.

The council modified is original plans Thursday night and dropped the planned increase by a $1.50 per month and will delay the start of the new rate until March 1.

The decision to decrease the planned $6 rate hike, which would have taken monthly residential fees from $11 to $17, was changed after aldermen listened to a report by Finance Director Paul Mushrush.

Mushrush said the original increase was based on some money being used to service the area the city wanted to annex. The annexation of about four total square miles was turned down by voters in November.

Mushrush said because the annexation effort failed, the city just needed to increase the rate to $14.50, a savings of a $1.50.

“The rate will have to be revisited in five years,” Mushrush said. It had been 11 years since the last rate increase, he said.

Collection service will still go down to once a week, more than likely also start in March, and the city will move forward with plans for an automated system.

One change in that idea is that the city will offer two sizes of containers. Instead of just the standard 96-gallon container, a smaller 48-gallon container will be available for seniors and single residents.

Mayor Gary Fletcher said the automated system could start as early as May. The changeover could cost the city around $1 million to start and the money will have to be borrowed through a loan or a bond issue.

In other council business:

In his monthly report, Police Chief Gary Sipes said even though murders and sexual assaults were up in 2010, overall violent crimes were down about10 percent from 2009, he said.

For the year, the city had one murder (none in 2009), 50 sexual assaults compared to 36 in 2009, 32 robberies compared to 46 in 2009, 108 felony assaults compared to 150 in 2009, 329 burglaries compared to 316 in 2009, 917 thefts compared to 1,046 in 2009, 72 vehicle thefts compared to 91 in 2009 and no arsons compared to three in 2009.

Adult arrests were up slightly for the year, while juvenile arrests moved down a tad. For 2010, the police arrested 3,911 adults compared to 3,885 in 2009. The police arrested 451 juveniles for the year compared to 458 in 2009.

Fire Chief John Vander-hoof, in his monthly report, said his department responded to 223 rescue calls, 75 still alarms, 18 general alarms and had 226 ambulance runs during December.

He said fire loss for the month was estimated at $20,500, while savings were estimated at $75,500.

The council agreed to accept the $40,700 bid by Allen’s Building Construction to construct new street-department offices.

The council, at the request of Alderman Mike Traylor, put off approving changes to the employee-policy manual until the next meeting to give aldermen a chance to read over the changes.

The annual joint-planning meeting between the council, the planning commission and city departments was set for 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Jacksonville Community Center.