Town letter: Parkside trash pick-up 7a-11p
A handful of Town businesses along Parkside Drive should expect a strongly worded certified letter from Farragut Mayor Ralph McGill regarding times their trash should be collected.
Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved unanimously a resolution authorizing the mayor to send a letter to businesses in the area, asking them to request their commercial trash collectors to only pick up trash between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., during its meeting Thursday, Dec. 22.
“I think this is a logical next step in the process,” Alderman Bob Markli said as he moved to approve the resolution.
David Smoak, Town administrator, said Sweetbriar subdivision residents, whose property backs up to Turkey Creek shopping area, have been subjected to loud noises for the past several months from banging of commercial trashcans from commercial garbage collectors, which pick up their clients’ trash between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
“That has caused neighbors that are adjacent to this area countless hours of interrupted sleep, even after requests from the neighborhood and Knox County Sheriff’s Office to cease these pickups in the middle of the night,” Smoak added. “[Residents] have talked to those businesses on numerous occasions — I know the Sheriff’s Office has talked to those businesses — and it seems they may get better at times, but then they come back again and continue to have the garbage pickup in the middle of the evening.”
As an amendment to his motion, Markli added a deadline of 30 days to comply and an ultimatum — if the trash is not picked up between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., the Board could enact an ordinance requiring compliance.
“To protect the health, safety and welfare of our citizens is one of the responsibilities of our government,” Smoak said in recommending the resolution.
Alderman Louise Povlin also asked the resolution be sent to the commercial trash collectors. Smoak said there are three major trash collectors who work in that area.
He added the businesses were forewarned to expect a letter.
“I went to each of the businesses in that area this week and talked to them and, once again, all of them said they would be happy to contact their commercial garbage collectors and get them on board with picking up during the daylight or at least between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.,” Smoak said.
Rashelle Levitzke, manager of Panda Express, one of the Turkey Creek businesses, said she turned in a request to her
trash pickup service, Waste Management, on Tuesday, Dec. 20, to pick up trash between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Levitzke said the trash is picked up from Monday to Saturday.
“We can edit if it becomes a nuisance,” she said. “I called them and they said they would change [their pickup schedule].”
The manager of Chili’s, another restaurant butting up against the subdivision, said he could not comment.
But Carol Christofferson, a Sweetbriar resident, said Chili’s has been cooperative with the residents regarding trash pickup.
“Thank you for this,” Christofferson said to BOMA, but added, “... I would like to caution that this has been going on since last January or February.”
