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Show Councils discuss possibility of automated system " JUDY JENSEN , S . -o:.:.. .... : . -, a. To automate or not to automate, that is the question North Salt Lake and Woods Cross city councils debated de-bated at their city council meetings " last week. For several months the two cities have been studying a variety of proposals that would change their current trash pickup system to an automated system. The councils are still undecided about the system. After a lengthy discussion last week, the North Salt Lake council voted unanimously to give city manager Collin Wood a "vote of confidence" to proceed with additional addi-tional information gathering. TheJVoods Cross council decided de-cided to form their own committee .. to study the proposal further. City manager Bret Wahlen, has collected data the committee will discuss. According to both city managers, -initial investigations indicate that . the cities could combine and pro-, - , vide city-operated automated trash Y pickup for approximately the same cost to residents as the current conventional con-ventional system. ' .. Mr. Wood explained that the au- tomated-8ysteooffereweiui- vantages. Each home would .be prjfc... vided with a 90 gallon container which should reduce costs to residents, resi-dents, as they would no longer need to purchase trash receptacles or O CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Automation discussed CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 plastic bags. North Salt Lake councilwoman Shanna Schaefemeyer pointed out that since the cans have attached lids, they should eliminate trash being be-ing scattered by the wind or animals. ani-mals. "It's certainly a much cleaner system," she said, f Mr. Wood told the council that the city could compete favorably with private haulers to provide the service. "The city doesn't need to make a profit, just break even. And the city does not need to pay sales . tax on the vehicles and we can get much tower interest rates," he explained. ex-plained. Both city councils hope to have their additional questions answered in the near future. If they chose to implement the automated system, they hope to have it on line in July. |