Clear to partly cloudy. Low 46F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph..

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 46F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.

A municipal knuckle-boom truck picks up yard and bulk waste on June 29 along School Street.

A municipal sanitation crew picks up household waste on June 23 along Sunset Avenue.

A municipal knuckle-boom truck picks up yard and bulk waste on June 29 along School Street.

A municipal sanitation crew picks up household waste on June 23 along Sunset Avenue.

Interim City Manager Peter Varney said that while the municipality has been able to run the full garbage and recyclables collection routes, the municipality continues to struggle to get yard waste picked up.

Varney told the City Council and the viewing audience during the council’s regular meeting June 27 that crews throughout the previous weekend collected a lot of yard waste, but that the municipality still was unable to get all of it picked up.

Varney said on a positive note, the municipality has made offers to 12 people to start work July 11 to fill six positions for field technicians to help pick up waste, four positions for operators to work equipment, a position for a supervisor at the transfer station and a position for an administrative assistant.

“So if we can get those positions filled up, we should be able to make better progress on solid waste collections,” Varney said.

A transfer station is a location where waste is temporarily held before being hauled to a landfill. The Rocky Mount transfer station is behind the Harrison Family YMCA and an independent contractor hauls the waste from the transfer station to a landfill in Bertie County.

Varney said that what he was about to say next may be a bit preliminary, but he said he wanted to the let council know he and his team have met with representatives of CrowderGulf, which is based in Mobile, Ala., and engages in disaster recovery, debris removal and coastal restoration services.

The municipality contracted with CrowderGulf in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd in 1999 to collect storm debris.

Varney said what he and his team have asked of CrowderGulf is for a couple of crews to work in July, August and September, for six days each of those months, to pick up both yard waste and bulk waste the municipality is unable to collect.

“So we’re hoping to be able to work out an arrangement with them for that,” he said.

He said the downside of that would be if CrowderGulf crews in Rocky Mount have to be demobilized so they can go provide cleanup services in Alabama, Georgia or South Carolina if a hurricane hits in one of those states.

During the June 13 City Council regular meeting, he told the council the municipality is going to have to wait until fall 2023 to receive a set of new knuckle-boom trucks designed to grab yard waste. Such a truck is outfitted with a hydraulic arm so the driver can pick up yard waste and place it in the truck’s large rear open container.

The municipality presently has four such trucks, all of which are used by the Environmental Services Division, but Varney said those trucks are old and in unreliable condition.

Six new trucks were ordered, with four to go to environmental services, one to go to the Streets Division and another to go to park maintenance, Varney said.

The plan had been to receive delivery of them by December, but Varney said he and his team recently received word the delivery time is going to be delayed until September 2023.

The municipality ordered at least four trucks for environmental services from White’s International Trucks in Wilson in June 2021 at a cost of $700,000.

The delivery date was pushed back as a result of supply chain issues that consequently affected the building of the chassis of each of the trucks.

The City Council’s recent 2022 retreat included Councilman Lige Daughtridge raising concerns about a high amount of city funds being spent in …

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