2023 Vol 17, Issue 6 December Gem Lake News

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Gem Lake News Page 6 of 8 City’s Planning Commission Engages in Trash Talking Trash is now on the agenda for Gem Lake’s Planning Commission. At the request of the City Council, the commission began to look at the city’s trash and garbage ordinance, which hasn’t been updated for decades. As part of this effort, the acting city clerk, Melissa Lawrence, came up with a garbage hauler survey for Gem Lake residents and businesses and sent it out in October. Results of the survey are now in. The city received 66 responses from residences and 11 responses from businesses. This equates to a response rate of 32% for resident surveys and 46% for commercial surveys. The survey asked respondents to identify their current hauler, rank their satisfaction with their hauler, list the approximate cost of their service and respond to whether or not they thought the city should contract garbage hauling services in the future. Resident Responses Residents identified three providers for their trash hauling: Waste Management, Republic Services, and Gene’s Disposal. Waste Management and Republic each served 26 respondents, while Gene’s served 14. Overall, 67% of resident respondents were extremely satisfied with their service, and 20% were somewhat satisfied. Six percent were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Each provider had most respondent’s rate them as extremely satisfied. Generally, most resident’s responses noted rates of $25.00-$49.99 per month. In terms of whether the city should contract with one hauler for services, residents showed a split opinion. Respondents were almost evenly split between Yes (47%) and No (44%). Most comments noted supporting the city contracting only if prices would stay consistent or go down. Commercial Responses Of the businesses who responded, five different garbage haulers provided services. These included the two listed above (Waste Management and Gene’s), as well as Walter’s Recycling and Refuse (two) RoadRunner (one), and Nitti Sanitation (one). Respondents were satisfied with their services, as 64% reported being somewhat satisfied, and 36% reported being extremely satisfied. Monthly rates did not vary as much for businesses, compared to residential respondents. Nine of the businesses who responded reported a monthly rate of $150.00 or more. Unlike residential responses, ten of eleven businesses who responded said they were not interested in the city contracting for garbage hauling services. The eleventh respondent listed themselves as indifferent to the idea. The Planning Commission and Cit y Council will discuss these results and decide on any further course of action. MS4 Hearing Scheduled A public hearing will be held on December 19 on Gem Lake’s annual MS4 updates, which is a mandatory hearing required by state law, covering stormwater flow within city borders. At the public hearing, an overview of Gem Lake’s stormwater situation and anything that would have impacted it in the previous year will be presented. The report will then be on file at Heritage Hall and available to anyone who wants to read more about it. What is an MS4 and what does it mean to be compliant? MS4 stands for “Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System” shortened to the “M” and four “S’s” for a catchy acronym that is all about managing runoff from storm events. An MS4 is a government entity such as a city, county, or other governmental entity, that is charged with the responsibility of preventing the spread of pollution. MS4 falls under the direction of another acronym NPDES, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. NPDES traces its origins to the 1992 Clean Water Act that was designed to protect the nation’s water supply.