Trash corrals were a topic of discussion during the Jan. 8 meeting of the Townhouse Association.
With no business on the agenda, board member Tom Barber opened the meeting to comments and discussion from residents.
Jim Eriksen, a Walter Place resident, stepped forward to explain why he'd prefer to keep a trash corral in his area. The board voted to remove all corrals last month.
"All these courts aren't the same," Eriksen said. "If they need a Dumpster, give them a Dumpster. Let the people in that court have a say in it."
Eriksen said he, along with some of his neighbors, paid to have their corral repainted, and they work together to keep it tidy. Their Republic-issued bins fit in it, he said, and they pull them out and line them up on pickup day.
He doesn't want a Dumpster, he said, because that would almost certainly be a messy, malodorous eyesore.
Keeping bins in front of a home, he said, can cause an eyesore for neighbors. While he does have a storage area in his carport, even the smaller 65-gallon bins will not fit through the door to get into it, he said.
Hauling the bin from the driveway to the curb, he said, could prove difficult, particularly for the less physically-able residents.
"If you got people that are older or they have a problem," Eriksen said, "like I got a shoulder out, they can't physically drag it out."
He doesn't mind other courts removing theirs or using a large trash bin, he said, but he thinks the corral works best in his neighborhood.
He would prefer, he said, not to see a blanket approach for all the different townhouse courts, which could have different needs.
"I think that's what's wrong with this whole situation is you're trying to get one shoe to fit all."
Townhouse association manager David Whittlesey said that the decision was based on what most people wanted. Most residents, he said, wanted to get rid of the corrals.
Additionally, he said, the corrals have proven problematic and messy, and he's gotten a lot of complaints about them. Refuse has ended up on the ground, he said, and people have found neighbors' trash in their trash cans.
Moreover, he said, the association has to work with the city, which means using the new bins. In most cases, he said, these bins do not fit existing corrals.
"It's a case of us reacting to what the city does," Whittlesey said.
For residents with disabilities and limitations, he said, Republic will pick up cans from in front of those people's homes. Residents interested in this assistance, he said, should call Republic at 479-855-9782.
The association, he said, has not yet started removing corrals and will hold off until further discussion.
During the meeting, board member Ron Johnston gave the association's treasury report for December, showing it brought in $92,518.90 and spent $87,079.76, leaving a surplus of $5,439.14.
Of that income, $3,121 was debt the association was able to recover.
General News on 01/25/2017