The Centralia City Council approved a new five-year contract agreement with CWI of Illinois doing business as Republic Services. The new contract includes the ability for residents to request large item or bulk pickups twice per month at no additional cost. The city previously charged $4.50 per resident for this service and will no longer charge this fee or only have collection in the spring and fall. This service will now be provided year-round upon request from residents.
Several council members, including Barri Allen, expressed their appreciation for this change, saying it would prevent bulk trash from piling up while waiting for pickup.
“It’s going so much better for everyone that you can call twice a month and get your large trash picked up,” said Allen. “So much better than it sitting on the curb. That took some negotiation. And it’ll take a burden off the city.”
Residents will be billed $24.67 monthly starting in October 2024 for trash and yard waste services. Residents around Raccoon Lake will be billed for trash only at a rate of $16.85 per month. The council also passed an ordinance updating the municipal code to reflect the changes in the contract. The city may consider taking over yard waste services rather than having the contractor perform the collection. This will be considered in the FY25 budget.
The council also approved the purchase of playground equipment for Fairview Park. The project includes an obstacle course, musical playground, and modernized playground equipment. As the new equipment is installed, unsafe existing playground equipment will be removed, and still-usable equipment will be relocated according to age group. Councilman Izzy Fontanez was enthusiastic about the new equipment.
“I do want to say that I’m pretty excited about what I saw. The towers look awesome, the—I’m going to call it a ninja course, it looks pretty cool,” Fontanez said. “I’m hoping we can make the illustrations public to let people see what’s going to happen with it… I think people are going to be as excited about it as we are.”
In closing remarks, Fontanez promoted a ribbon cutting taking place at the Centralia Youth Center on Thursday at 4:30, encouraging community members to attend.
