City Council postpones trash-service changes

Plus, council approves ambulance purchases and tables Dairy Queen's sign request

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BURLESON — The Burleson City Council convened February 3 at City Hall for discussions about pending trash changes, a potential change for the new Dairy Queen and purchases for the Fire Department.

Council listens to citizens, postpones trash-service changes until 2029

At February 3’s meeting, the council decided to postpone any changes to the city’s trash services until 2029 after discussing the changes with each other and with citizens.

The changes — first brought up at the January 6 council meeting — included changes to the number of pickups per week, mandating the use of a cart and the addition of hazardous-waste removal, which would have resulted in a decrease of what citizens pay per month from $24.23 to around $19 per month.

Several citizen speakers expressed disagreement with the changes at February 3’s meeting.

In a perfect demonstration of how government is supposed to work, hundreds of citizens spoke out, reaching out to the council via email, posting on Facebook, showing up to the meetings, and more, and because of that, the Council has decided to postpone any changes until the current contract expires in 2029.

Councilmember Adam Russell (Place 6) suggested postponing changes until 2029 but mentioned that “citizens need to expect the bag service to go away with the new contract.”

This could mean that even though exchanging bags for carts was one of the biggest complaints, cart-exclusive service could likely be our future with the way that the market is going.

Councilmembers Victoria Johnson (Place 1) and Alexa Boedeker (Place 3) concurred with Russell. Boedeker added that the council was going to make the changes “to save [citizens] money.”

Councilmember Dan McClendon (Place 5) said he will err on the side of what the citizens want even if it’s more expensive. He also mentioned that he always wants to spend the citizens’ money responsibly.

Council approves fire-department ambulance purchases

The council approved the Burleson Fire Department purchasing two new ambulances for $832,000 at the February 3 meeting.

Fire Chief Casey Davis said the ambulances will help increase the fire department’s reliability as the fire department is averaging a 19% year-over-year call-volume growth — far outpacing cities of similar size.

The council also approved the purchase of a new sewer vacuum truck for the public works department for $517,000.

Council tables Dairy Queen’s sign request

The council decided to table making a decision on a sign request from the Dairy Queen at 1620 Southwest Wilshire Boulevard.

The applicants requested to put in a pole-style sign closer to the street than the city ordinance allows due to the required monument-style sign being expensive to maintain if the city needed to perform sewer repairs.

City staff could not recommend approval due to the two variances requested, but the council shelved the item to discuss after the city explores putting a “sleeve” on the sewer line to prevent potential issues in the future.

The city attorney mentioned that the city — based on the Texas Constitution — can’t provide financial assistance directly to a private development and that any potential changes will require the applicant to be liable.

The applicant said they understand that possibility and appreciate the council coming up with a potential solution with the sleeve.

Next meeting

The council is scheduled to meet again February 17 at City Hall.

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