The Carencro City Council is looking to curb a bad habit in the city.
The council is considering a fine for residents who don’t pick up their trash cans from the side of the road after collection.
"This has been going on for a long time. I get complaints from citizens quite often, trash cans are out," said the city manager, Don Chauvin.
He said he proposed this ordinance because he gets several calls a week with complaints about the trash cans being in the road.
Under the proposed ordinance, residents homeowners who leave their trash cans at the curb after pick-up would get two warnings before being fined $25.
"The idea of a fee associated with it is more to curb the behavior than a way to collect a fee or any amount of money," said Chauvin. "When they get dumped, a lot of the times they get left on the very edge of the road, sometimes in the road. So I get complaints from people who say ‘hey those cans are being left out all week long and never get picked up.’ Sometimes they just stay there all week and they walk the trash to the can."
Eric Knight lives in Carencro and works as a landscaper, creating a lot of debris and trash. He says he disagrees with the fine.
"I think they have bigger issues when it comes to the trash situation that they have to tackle before fining residents. They pick them up when they want to. They’re supposed to come on Thursdays, sometimes they pick them up on Saturdays, sometimes they just don’t show up at all. It’s frustrating because residents get blamed for issues that are, yes it’s a slight of hand kind of thing, it’s the residents fault but inevitably it comes down to the inconsistency," said Knight.
Chauvin said the biggest concern is safety.
"Very often those trash cans, when schools in, are a big problem for the buses. You’re in a situation where the buses and the cars have to negotiate who’s going to go and who’s going to pass around the cans. So just think about the community," said the city manager.
The ordinance will be discussed and voted on at the July 16th city council meeting.
