If you live in Ottawa and take your garbage out to the alley for pickup, you might soon have to change. An ordinance the City Council put on file Tuesday night would require residential pickup on the streets in front of homes. That’s meant to protect the alleys, which the city is repaving, from the wear big heavy garbage trucks can put on them.
Poorly kept alleys are a problem Public Improvements Commissioner Marla Rodriguez is working on. She says most of the calls she gets about city issues are about run-down alleys.
Rodriguez is pledging to repave all the alleys during her four-year term, and that work got started last year. Mayor Dan Aussem says it’s costing $13,000 per block to redo alleys. The city is spending $275,000 on the project this year. He says that money would go to waste if the city doesn’t make the garbage collection routes change.
Alleys in the business districts wouldn’t be affected. Aussem says they’re built to withstand heavier traffic since that’s where businesses usually keep their dumpsters and take deliveries by big truck.
The ordinance could be voted on July 7. It would take effect 60 days later.
Garbage pickup wouldn’t be allowed in alleys anymore under a newly proposed Ottawa city ordinance. City officials say alleys, such as this one paved last year on the west side, will last longer without several heavy garbage trucks on them every week.