Phoenixville Council Passes New Trash Ordinance

New trash bins and rules will be coming to Phoenixville Borough after borough council passed an ordinance concerning trash pickup at Tuesday night's meeting.

Borough manager E. Jean Krack told Patch that new trash toters will be delivered to residents around the second week of May. Trash pickup during the first week of May will be on a normal schedule, and residents will get a trash can and a recycling container the following week.

Krack said that the program was paid for by capital funds and from trash fees gradually over the last six or seven years.

"There will be no cost to residents, we haven't raised trash fees in a long time," Krack said.

The borough will be posting a Frequently Asked Questions document very soon to address the main concerns raised by residents.

During Tuesday's meeting, Council members Jennifer Mayo, Kyle Guie, Christopher Bauers, and David Gautreau all said they had heard from residents about the trash rules.

Most of the concerns were about people who might not be able to get the larger bin to the curb or might have only one bag. Placing trash out on the curb without a bin will not be allowed under the new ordinance.

In the of a recent Patch article, Council member Jennifer Mayo addressed several posters' concerns about the new policy. 

Council also heard a presentation on a signage project for the borough that will help it develop a theme and consistent signs for identifying parts of the borough, parking locations and the borough's borders. The project has been in the works since a

Consulting firm ex;it presented their ideas during the meeting, where their representative, Kelly Bennet, explained that they built the project around five concepts that describe Phoenixville.

"Phoenixville is 'vibrant', 'authentic', 'creative', 'friendly', and 'festive and fun'," Bennett said. "We took a couple of cues from the industrial heritage of Phoenixville, the rivets, raw materials, flame or feather pattern of the phoenix [on the signs]."

The preliminary color scheme is a fire-themed orange, red and yellow scheme.

The presentation to council was just the first step in this project. There will be a pilot program where a few signs will be fabricated and color and typography will be developed.

Council Vice President Michael Speck voied concerns over the cost of the project.

"To me it’s a tough pill to swallow, to budget $110,000 on wayfinding when we could get a police offer with a chunk of change left over. As far as spending taxpayer money on it, I can’t find that money," Speck said.

Some funding has already been passed for the project, and the council voted to go ahead with the process.