Free Trash Pickup or Pay for Road and Sewer Repairs in Arnold

Arnold will spend about $950,000 to provide free trash pickup to residents this year.

City Finance Director Deborah Lewis provided that information, in a memo to councilmen in August 2011, about Arnold’s fiscal 2012 budget.

Arnold's budget this year is about $15.4 million. Free trash service is about 6.2 percent of the Arnold’s forecasted expenses, Lewis said in the memo.

The Arnold Police Department is the largest amount of the city’s expenses at about $4.7 million, or 30.4 percent of the budget. Public Works costs about $2.8 million or 18.7 percent of the budget. Street projects are about 13.7 percent or $2.1 million in the Arnold budget, the memo said.

Ward 3 Councilman Paul Freese said, in an interview with ArnoldPatch, providing free trash pickup was the best way to return money to the taxpayers.

Arnold households benefit from free trash service estimated at $20 per month or $240 yearly per household, Freese said.

Seniors and people with low-incomes can use the savings on groceries, medicines or utility bills, he said.

“If the city were hurting financially, I would be the first to yank free trash,” Freese said.

The city could use trash service money to prevent city layoffs for example, he said.

But the Arnold economy is growing and is on firm financial footing, Freese said.

The city has seen many new national retailers—Starbucks, Five Guys Burger and Fries, Panda Express and Aldi’s Grocery—move into Arnold and contribute to tax revenues.

Stifel Nicolaus, a public finance advisor, said the financial markets will likely snap up Arnold’s new bonds that will be used to refinance the Arnold Recreation Center's debt. The city hopes to issue the new bonds while interest rates remain low.

Improving Arnold’s streets and improving the city’s sewer system will require millions of dollars and several years, Freese said.

Arnold refused, in February, Missouri American Water’s $12 million offer to buy the city’s sanitary sewer system.

Arnold’s sewers use old clay pipes that have cracked after 40 years of use and shifting land, said Gene Fribis, a consultant hired by the city to investigate leaks into Arnold’s sanitary and storm sewers.

The cracked sewer pipes allow additional water to seep into the sanitary system. The extra water is then sent to Metropolitan St. Louis' Sewer District for processing. Residents and the city are likely charged for processing the extra water, Fribis has said in reports to councilmen.

Former City Administrator John Brazeal said, the city needs to resume crack sealing the roads to lower the amount of water damage to Arnold’s roads and bridges.

“Damage in the first year, for example, may cost $1,000 but three years of damage may cost $5,000,” Brazeal said in a city finance meeting last year.

Brazeal sits on the Arnold Finance Committee.

Crack sealing uses asphalt to fill street cracks and joints to prevent water damage, says the Road Management & Engineering Journal website.

Proper crack sealing will add between three to five years to a city’s paved roads, the journal’s website said.