LOCKPORT — After a decent amount of revision, to make the rights and responsibilities of both residents and City Hall clearer, the Common Council’s proposed refuse and recycling code will go to a public hearing and approval vote next week.

The code more or less spells out the city’s compact with Modern Disposal for private, residential refuse and recycling collection, tentatively set to begin next month.

After a raucous hearing on the first draft proposal last month, City Attorney John Ottaviano rewrote sections of the now-22-page code to address common public concerns. Among the changes:

• Language was added making it abundantly clear that curbside recycling by residents is voluntary, despite the fact that state law mandates recycling. 

Every property that receives one or more refuse carts will also receive a recycling cart, whether the owner wants it or not; but the portion of the code dealing with recycling refers to properties that “elect to participate” and says, “The frequency and amount of recyclables (a property generates) shall be at the residential producer’s or commercial/institutional producer’s sole discretion.”

“We are saying, by New York State law, you have to recycle, but whether you put one soup can in the cart or fill it to the brim, put the cart out one time a year or every other week, is at the sole discretion of the owner,” Ottaviano said. “We can’t say you never have to recycle, that would be against state law; but will we have special refuse-and-recycling police to make you do it? No.”

The voluntary language satisfies 4th Ward Alderman Andy Chapman, who earlier voiced suspicions about the Radio Frequency Identification chips being placed on all refuse and recycling carts to help Modern and the city keep track of the carts. Chapman suggested they could be used by government to monitor people’s trashing habits and, down the road, maybe target those who don’t recycle.

An RFI chip contains a 24-digit scrambled code, according to adviser Dawn Timm; when the chip is scanned with a reader, it reveals the owner’s name and address of the property where carts are assigned, nothing else, she said last week. That is so that misplaced or stolen carts can be returned to their rightful owner, and the city can ensure customers are being billed properly, meaning according to the size refuse cart(s) they’re using.

RFI chips could be used by Modern to measure the volume of users’ recyclables and obtain “rewards” — cash discounts from local businesses for example — for users who recycle a lot. That’s a proposal only, at this point.

• Wording was changed or added to limit the city’s role in refuse collection. City workers will not collect brush produced by commercial contractors; its workers and equipment will not be used to collect waste not generated by a city resident, but it will clean up after illegal dumping; it will not collect used tires, but it will dispose of them for a fee.

• Refined rules for Modern customers include: They will place refuse and recycling carts 3 to 5 feet from the street edge, in an area free of snow, but not necessarily ice; carts will be placed to the curb no earlier than 24 hours before collection day, an improvement from “no earlier than the night before” collection day; brush and tree parts generated by a property owner/occupant will be picked up weekly, so long as they’re in bundles no bigger than 4 feet long and 50 pounds and can be handled by one man.

• Stripped the director of engineering of the power to set the rules and regulations of waste disposal single-handedly. The regs are now to be OK’d by the Common Council.

An example: Originally the director was to decide when property owners/occupants could get an exemption from cart placement rules due to disability. Now the code says exemptions can be granted by the director, the mayor or the Common Council.

On Wednesday, Ottaviano said additional language will be inserted to make clear that the grantors all have to follow guidelines when giving exceptions, and the guidelines will be OK’d by the Council. Sticking to pre-approved guidelines helps elected officials avoid the appearance they’re granting or withholding favors, he said.

The exemption guidelines, which will be written separate of the code, should apply only to people who can’t get carts to the curb because of physical or mental disabilities, and exemption applicants should be required to get a doctor’s note, Ottaviano added. There is some talk of the city working with Modern on a “porter service” for disabled persons, meaning an arrangement in which a Modern employee picks up the customer’s carts at their door, but that, too, is only an idea at the moment.

Of code enforcement, it’s to be in the hands of a mayoral appointee, police officers and/or “other persons as may be designated by the Common Council.” The director of engineering can send public works crews out to collect, or OK Modern collection of, waste that’s put out improperly, for fees pre-approved by the Council.

• Regarding a “vicious rumor” that the city will drop off refuse and recycling carts at vacant lots and make the property owners pay for them, Ottaviano pointed to the section of the code saying that would be illegal. Only occupied structures are to be serviced by the waste hauler, according to section 4, paragraph F of the code. That language been in the proposal all along, since the first draft was put up to public scrutiny in mid-July.

The public hearing on the proposed code will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Council chambers at City Hall. It’s expected the aldermen will vote the same night whether to enact it or not.

Second Ward Alderman Jack Smith already said he’ll vote “no” to the code’s passage, because he doesn’t like the limits being placed on one- and three-family residential properties when it comes to their choice of refuse cart sizes. The code, which mirrors the contract deal worked out by the refuse committee and Modern, allows single-family residences to order a small, medium or large cart, but in cases where they want two carts, they can only get the large ones. Three-family residences can only get large carts. Two-family residences, meanwhile, can select two carts of different sizes. It’s an arbitrary preference for duplexes, Smith said; single- and three-family residences don’t get equal ability to control their annual fees.

Alderman at Large Joe Kibler said he’s leaning toward a “no” vote too, because in addition to agreeing with Smith’s gripe, he thinks the city has to cut “snowbirds” a fee break for the months they’re not in Lockport. No such provision is in the works now.