Whitefish still mulling curbside recycling plan

The Whitefish City Council has a light agenda on Monday, Oct. 16, but will dig into a few key issues during a work session from 5 to 7 p.m. that precedes the formal meeting.

For the first half hour the council will discuss and review a property at 1315 Columbia Ave., an area of open space near the Whitefish River.

From 5:30 to 6 p.m. the council will focus on a wastewater nutrient variance update.

Council members will spend from 6 to 7 p.m. reviewing a curbside recycling plan with Evergreen Disposal. Whitefish is considering a mandated curbside recycling program and recently advertised for proposals form interested companies.

Evergreen Disposal’s bid states the company would charge $2.52 per stop for recycling collection bi-weekly for the first year — just over $5 per month per customer — with the cost going up slightly over time to $2.65 per stop by the third year.

The annual recycling cost is projected to at $229,320 the first year, according to Evergreen Proposal’s proposal. The mandatory recycling would add a third bill to city residents’ utility load. Currently the city bills for water and sewer service and North Valley Refuse bills its garbage pickup separately.

There are no public hearings on the agenda.

The only action item will be appointing two committee members to the Planned Unit Development Working Group.

The meeting begins at 7:10 p.m.; both the work session and meeting will be held at Whitefish City Hall.