City Of Guymon looking To Clean Alleys

A quick look around Guymon and one thing becomes apparent: some of the city’s alleys have become eyesores. Some residents dump appliances, furniture and other items in the alleys — items the city’s sanitation department can’t transport in their trucks.
It’s up to residents to take such items to the transfer station.
“We do not pick up things that are laying in the alley,” said City Manager Ted Graham. “Everybody just assumes that you can just lay it out there and it’s going to magically disappear. It does not.”
Graham said residents can call the sanitation department, who will try to pick up stuff.
“But we’re not there in an instant,” Graham said. “I want to make that clear, we do not service you that minute. I think we’ve got to break that mentality that you can just set it by something and it will go away.”
Public Works Director Ivan Clark took pictures of one alley that had 32 bags of trash laying by a Dumpster.
“What are we going to do? Help educate and try to get people to bring (trash) to the transfer station,” Clark said. “Yes, if we’re not open, you can’t bring it.”
The Mayor and city council, along with Graham discussed finding ways to have the transfer station open during hours that would be more convenient to the public.
“We talked about trying to extend the hours both on Saturday and Sunday,” Graham said.
The transfer station was open from 8 a.m.-Noon and 1-4 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 11).
“We’re up for anything,” Clark said. “We’ve tried just about everything over the years.”
Council member William King asked about rollouts outside the gates of the transfer station, so when someone brings trash to the transfer station and it’s closed, they don’t have to haul it back to town.
Graham said he discussed that issue with Mike Tabor, the general manager of the Liberal, Kan. landfill.
“It’s hard to make it work because when it’s un-manned, we get stuff that is illegal (such as engine oil),” Graham said.
Graham said an option could be a smaller rollout, which people could use at their home or business for a set amount of time and for a set fee, that the city could then retrieve and take the trash to the transfer station.
“I think that would assist in helping people,” Graham said. “These are fairly small, you can set them in your driveway out of the way, fill them, we would come get them.
“I really like the idea of the smaller rollout that you can rent, put in clippings, tree limbs, if you’re doing a remodel or wanting to take something out, we would have that provided and you wouldn’t throw it in the Dumpster and overfill it or you wouldn’t lay it in the alley and assume we’ll pick it up.”