The Española City Council cleared the way for the purchase of new polycarts during the Oct. 22 meeting, but there seems to be some confusion as to how many were ordered and who will get them.
North Central Solid Waste Authority Manager Gino Romero said some residents could see almost 1,300 polycarts by the end of the month. In contrast, Interim Española City Manager Joe Duran said that the city has only ordered 300 polycarts and that in his estimate, Romero may have been factoring in other entities who could receive polycarts in the purchase.
Upon further conference with Romero, Duran said the city was indeeded ordering 1,200. Duran said he was confused from the previous year’s polycart order.
Romero said the Authority is supposed to send a check for $60,000 this week to cover the cost of two shipments each of 648 polycarts. An invoice to purchase 1,248 polycarts for $47.80 each was signed by city Human Resource Analyst Stephanie Martinez. According to a previous Rio Grande SUN report, the city had considered purchasing 1,200 polycarts in May.
Romero said the Authority chipped in $8,000 to assist in the purchase of the polycarts.
As the Authority is waiting for shipments to arrive, they are currently compiling a list of customers that prioritizes residents who have consistently lodged complaints.
“The squeaky wheel gets the oil,” Romero said.
Further complicating polycart roll out is that the city has a priority list of their own. Duran said the city is determining who gets polycarts first, by prioritizing those without them and customers with broken polycarts. Whatever remains of the polycarts will go to “everybody else.”
Romero said the Authority and the city will have to spend time consolidating the list to avoid redundancies from customers who have complained to both of them.
Duran said none of the councilor’s constituencies will be favored in the polycart dispersal and no preferences will be given. Duran said that the city intends to purchase 1,200 more polycarts in the 2015 fiscal year in a continuing effort to eventually replace all of the city’s polycarts.