By: Timothy Kays
At the May 4 video conference of the Bryan City Council, Bryan Street Commissioner Tyson Engstrom announced that the city’s large trash pickup service would return this week. “We are starting the all trash pickup tomorrow, the first Tuesday,” he said, “…and we’ll follow the normal schedule from here on out, unless we get shut down again.”
“We know there’s a lot of trash out there, and we…might not get it all picked up on Tuesday. But if we don’t get it picked up Tuesday, we’ll be back Wednesday to get it. So, when people get home tomorrow night and there’s still trash out there, it’s because we didn’t make it there yet. We’ll come back and get it.”
“I ask that citizens put their trash in bags or boxes,” Engstrom continued. “Just don’t dump your wastebasket out the middle of your yard and expect us to pick it up, piece by piece. we have face shields, and we have gloves, and we have respirators…but we don’t want to handle it. We want to handle it the least amount as we can.”
While all-trash is returning to normal, Engstrom reported that the recycling program is still in the COVID-19 induced deep freeze. “Everything that we pick up on street is going straight to the landfill,” he said. “We don’t feel it’s safe yet to pick through everybody’s garbage to sort out recyclables.”
“I know there’s a lot of people that wash their cans and wash their milk jugs, and their recycling containers are filled with nothing but recyclables, but there’s a lot of people that use that recycle tub as a trash can. For the guys to go pick it up off the street, take it back to the recycling center and sort through it piece by piece, and handle it at least three times, I don’t think now it was worth the risk to their health and well being.”
“And the second reason is we don’t have the inmates right now, the trustees from the jail (CCNO), obviously because the jail is closed. Two guys from recycling working at the cemetery, because we haven’t hired the summer help yet. And then two other guys from recycling at Parks and Rec. There’s only two guys in the recycling every day. We can’t pick it up yet.”
Council passed Ordinance 17-2020, which allows for a 15-day sick leave donation during the city’s state of emergency, or otherwise due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees shall be given the ability to donate or receive a one-time donation of a maximum of 15 days of sick leave, effective March 10, 2020, through September 10, 2020.
Any donation or receipt of donated sick leave due to the COVID-19 pandemic shall not be counted against a further request to donate or receive donated sick leave, under Section 312 of the Bryan City Employee Handbook.
“This ordinance is in conjunction with a joint committee meeting we had with the Wage Committee for the City Council and for the HR committee for BPA,” said Mayor Carrie Schlade. “The request is we have some employees that were recently employed before this pandemic hit. I think I addressed this early on in March, but we had to split some shifts and separate people just because of the 14-day quarantine piece.”
“So people were using sick personal vacation time during this time, and we had some employees that just had not had the ability to accumulate any. Some have gotten donated time and some have not yet, but we anticipate they may need to.”
“So what we’re asking of Council…is that during the six-month period of March 10 – which is when (Williams County Health Commissioner) Jim Watkins came in met with us about COVID-19 – to September 10, that if anyone gets that 15-day donation…that that one time requirement gets waived so that this doesn’t harm them.”
Council approved resolutions authorizing the police chief and the fire chief to apply for and manage grants associated with COVID-19 for the city of Bryan, as needed.
In personnel actions, Council approved a raise for patrol officer Derek Beardsley, who completed five years of full-time service with the Bryan Police Department. Patrol officer Richard Roe was appointed to regular full-time status effective May 13, as he successfully completed his one year of probation.
Finally, Jeremy Viers was appointed to regular full-time status as a Bryan Police Department Patrol Sergeant effective May 5, as he successfully completed his six months of probation.
Bryan Chief of Police Chris Chapa reported, “I just want you guys know that the City of Bryan Police Department is back to work. We’re going back to doing our normal operations. With the easing of restrictions, people are out and about, and the officers are back to doing what their normal jobs are.”
Chief Chapa also detailed the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) that he secured for his patrol officers, and the purpose for the acquisition. “When you get stopped,” he said, “…for the officer the best practice is that they have a pair of goggles on, which we’ve secured. Regular goggles, the glass stock goggles, and we secured facemasks for them.”
“We’ve secured the N95 masks for them to wear. They also have gloves. We have enough of all of them, I’m going to start a rotation. The N95 masks, I’m working with OSP. We are going to start a rotation, and taking those mass down to Columbus to get clean by Battelle, because that is an FDA approved cleaner.”
Timothy can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com