Rocky Top still waiting for new garbage truck
It now won’t be until sometime in July that Rocky Top residents must begin using new trash cans that can be dumped hands-free into a special new garbage truck, City Council members learned last week.
Similar to ones already in use in Clinton, the new garbage truck was expected to have been delivered by now, but manufacturing delays have pushed its delivery to at least sometime in June, City Manager Michael Foster said during Thursday’s council meeting.
The new truck, which has an automated side-loading feature that picks up the garbage cans and dumps them into the truck, has been on back order, but is now close to being built.
“The chassis is supposed to be finished in March,” Foster said.
Then, the truck’s completed chassis still must go to Texas for the body to be installed, and that could take an additional three months, the city manager said.
About four months out is delivery of the new trash cans, which are specially matched to the automated system. All Rocky Top trash-collection customers will be required to use the new cans once the new truck starts making its rounds, Foster said.
“The city will provide the first one as part of their garbage fee,” Foster said earlier.
Those cans will be distributed along with a letter to trash-collection clients with instructions on how to use them, he said.
The city had expected to have to borrow money to buy the new garbage truck and cans, but instead is going to be able to pay for them out of the budget, Foster said.
“We had raised rates on garbage to pay for it, and were going to take out a loan, but we got enough money to pay cash for it,” he said. That’s because the truck has been on back order for several months.
The city will order about 700 of the new trash cans, Foster said. “We have about 660 customers right now.”