For joining us this morning. We are here for our last in-person meeting from for the year to
discuss the new bulk and brush program, which begins january 1st, 2026. We have a few staff
members here with us, deputy city manager isom cameron is here. The sanitation
coordinator, kimber henderson, is here with us, and we have the account manager from
republic services, christy green, and she will be doing the presentation this morning.
and hopefully we'll be able to answer any questions that you have. This is being streamed
live now and it will be it's recording. So you can come back and look at it at any time. We
have a scarce crowd this morning, but it's okay. Just here to get this information
out. And christy, you got your clicker, okay. Christy green's going to start the presentation.
just, just. Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for coming. As becky said, we are
this is our last official meeting and it's been great feedback and questions from all
of the residents. So we appreciate everyone joining. And as you guys know, we're
going to be making some changes to the bulk and brush program beginning january. So we will
be discontinuing the monthly on call service. And we're going to a scheduled service. And
what that means is we're going to be dividing the city up into quadrants. So each address will
have week one, week two, week three. Week four. And what this is going to do, it's going to
help eliminate any confusion on when your pickup is going to occur. It's also going to
eliminate issues with your trash bulk being picked up. Maybe your neighbors not being
picked up. It's going to help republic services focus on specific areas in the city of
desoto, so we can let the city and the residents know exactly where our trucks are going to
be. Sometimes there's heavier brush and bulk in different areas, so it's going to allow
us that. It's also going to allow you better scheduling. If you know I'm week one or week
two and spring is just around the corner and we're doing some spring cleanup, you know that
you're going to be able to set your stuff out week two and and can prepare for that. So
there's still going to be an option for an on call option. We understand that sometimes
there may be a large cleanup needed at your house. You may have a large tree that needs to
be cut up. So we're still going to have the ability for you to call in for an on call option
with a fee, and you'll just call into the action center if you need to schedule that. So
as you can see here, we have divided the city up into four quadrants. We have currently
been doing a pilot program in section two for a couple of months to see how that goes. We
got really good feedback from the residents on things that were going on. We've done a
survey from those residents, and we did working with the city of desoto and the gis. We
tried really hard to get it equal with the number of homes in each quadrant. And so you
can see by the map of how many homes are in each quadrant and where we're going to be now,
this new program goes into effect january 1st. So right around the corner, if you've
got something out right now that needs to be picked up, please call the action center.
we're still running the go request until january 1st. I tell everyone on all the
presentation, this is probably one of the most important slides, because it helps you
understand the scheduling of the weeks. The most important part of this is for everyone to
understand. The first week begins with the first monday of the month. So if the first
falls on, as you can see in january, january 1st falls on a thursday. So week one for
january is going to begin january 5th. So the first week of the month always begins with
the first monday of the month. And that is the most important thing to remember. You can
begin placing your items curbside 6 p.m. The friday before your scheduled monday,
and we ask that all items be out by 7 a.m. Monday morning of the week of your scheduled
pickup. Republic services will then run that quadrant monday through friday, and we have
until 6 p.m. On friday to get everything serviced for you. And now we realize it is going
to be a transition. Some changes during the first couple of months. So if something
happens and you're in week two and you see the truck coming out on tuesday and you forgot
to put your stuff out, we're going to be assisting with that transition. So please call in.
we're trying to reiterate what the week is. And we're still going to be running an extra
truck to pick up those additional things. So it's just additional reinforcement. It is
a change. So if something happens and you see you missed it, then let us know. Call the
action center and we'll come out and still get it serviced for you. We don't want you to
have to wait until the next month to get it picked up. So just a few things about what
brush some brush and bulk information. We ask that all of the brush be clean and free of
trash, and we realize that there's going to be some trash that flies through the
neighborhood, but we ask that it not be. Bags and bags should be going into your carts. But
we also realize that if you have a lot of leaves, there's going to be a lot of bags. So
just normal household trash should be going in your in your cart, not in with your brush
and bulk. We ask that it's not blocked. So many of you may have seen the big truck that
comes through the neighborhood. It is a large truck with a large claw arm, and so that
truck needs a lot of clearance. So please try to make sure that it's not blocked with any cars
and that your debris is not obstructed with any obstacles like mailboxes, cars, wires or
anything like that. If something occurs and we arrive at your property and we're not
able to service it because it's blocked, we will tag it to let you know we were here. We're
not able to do it. And then you're able to to move it or get free of if it's blocked or
anything like that. So the city of desoto residents, you are allowed ten cubic yards once a
month for pickup. And this just kind of shows and illustrates what exactly is ten cubic yards.
it's got the dimensions of it. It's 12ft in length, eight feet in width, and it's about 3.5ft
tall. And you can see that the blue dumpster, there is a ten cubic yard, 55 to 65 large
trash bags. Leaves are now starting to fall off all the trees. As I was driving through
the neighborhood this morning, I was. I saw some beautiful trees and beautiful colors and
they were starting to lose their leaves. And I'm like, leave! Season is about to be here soon. So for that continue, we will pick those up. Those are going to be more than bags
that you can fit in your cart, and will continue to pick those up with your with your bulk and
brush items. So what exactly is a bulk item? So it's an appliance. It's any piece of
furniture or any other residential item that can't go into your cart. We do take
refrigerators, freezers, things like that, but we ask that they be free of freon so you can
call a licensed technician. They will come out, they will remove and drain the freon and
they will place a tag on it. Once that tag is there, then you can place it curbside and
we will pick that up for you. It just has to be free of any freon. We do not accept any
chemicals, any tires, any car parts, any paint or anything like that. All of that is is
not part that we do now. The city of desoto, typically in the spring, march, april, has a
household chemical cleanup where you're allowed to bring your items here. In addition,
the city of dallas has a household chemical location located on plano road. You are
able to drop your items off there for free. All you have to do is show your driver's
license and they accept that material there. And what's considered brush grass
clippings. Anything from your yard? Trees. We understand trees sometimes are going to
going to fall down and have to be kept, but we ask that they be in 4 to 6 weeks. Anything
larger than that is really hard for our truck to safely maneuver, to pick up and place
into the back of the truck, bags of grass, cleaning out your flowerbed and things like
that is what's considered brush. It does not include food waste. Again, anything coming out of
your house, normal household trash should be going in your carts. And I also want to
remind everyone that on your second pickup day of the week. So on your thursday or friday,
you are allowed up to three cubic yards. Now that is going to need to be placed where your
cart is. So place it directly next to your cart. Your bulk and brush will go in the front
and then wherever you place your trash cart for pickup is where you'll place your three
cubic yards. So nothing is changing on that. You can still put that out every week. The
small items. In addition to all of the great things that the city of desoto has been doing
with the app and the action center, we're also launching in more information on the
republic services app. So this is a free app that you can download, and you simply need
to enter an email address, create a password, and then you put in your address and it will
download your information. What this does is it allows you to see your schedule for your
pickups. It allows you to report a missed pickup. It allows you to schedule. Many
times people call into the action center. They're needing to do a clean out. Maybe they
need a large open top. You can actually order that information directly from the app. So just
an additional line of communication along with your desoto app, along with the
action center, along with the great information on the website, we're just trying to
give you guys information overload of how many ways you can get everything contacted.
so as you can see here, it shows you this is actually my service. And my service goes on
mondays. So you can see on monday I have a recycle cart, I have a trash cart, and I have
my bulk service every monday. And it shows you when your service is going to be. It also
allows you to see where your truck is and lets you know of any holidays. So for me we
didn't service. My area was not ran on labor day and so my pickup was on a monday so my
pickup was delayed. It also allows you to set up any notifications if something
happens. When it rains. We can experience up to 2 to 3 hours wait times at the landfill,
which is going to delay our drivers. We then enter that information on the route to say
we're running behind, and then it can send you notifications. You can get a text, a phone
call, an email, or if you don't want any notifications, you can unsubscribe from the
notifications altogether. You can still just log in the app and see what's going there, but
it's just additional information for you to get on your services. Most of the time
we try to be pretty prompt, but sometimes with the landfill it the rain is just insane with
some how how far the delays can become. And this is a great faq of just kind of some things
that the city of desoto and republic services has been doing over the last couple of
months to kind of reiterate everything that's going on. We've had multiple town hall
meetings, zoom meetings every resident should be receiving had received a letter. We did
specialize postcards that went out to every resident that told you what week. Your pick up,
pick up. Good, good goodness, that was funny. Your pickup is in. So. Week one. Week two,
week three. Week four. We have also done neighborhood entryway signs. If you guys see we've
got they've got the digital signs throughout the city of desoto letting you know hey
welcome brush is coming. We've had hoa meetings with hoa presidents, the city manager
newsletter. So much information is going out because we want to ensure we heard the residents
of desoto. We understood that they wanted some changes. So thank you to everyone for your
feedback and just more constant communication of getting everything out to the residents.
so that is all I have on that. Miss becky, do you want to show the map or do you want to? Any
questions at this time? Yeah. Sounds good. Thank you. Becky is pulling up the gis map.
there is a page dedicated directly to brush and bulk, and kudos to the city of desoto gis
department. You can go in and enter your address and it tells you directly when your pickup
is. So just an additional link for you to be able to look and see when your pickup is. So
this is the interactive map that is available on the city of desoto website. When you go
to the home page, there should be a tab that says I'm sorry. We go to the home page and go
to the trash page. Then you'll see where it says to be able to find your location and you just
click on there, you can enter your address. We're going to enter the city of desoto's
address. And you click on it there, and it will zoom in and show you which week you are
assigned to. So the city hall happens to fall into week two, which is in the yellow. Make
sure again all items need to be placed out no later than 7 a.m. On the monday morning of the
week that you are designated. You cannot put your items out on wednesday. You need to have
it out by 7 a.m. On monday, because they do do assessments to make sure that they have
enough room, and the routes are going to be okay to be able to pick up all the debris. We have
had questions before about, you know, incidents that happen outside of your designated week.
just understand that those kinds of pickups may be subject to additional fees, and we will
determine those on a case by case basis. That's all I have. Okay. All right. Any questions.
nothing else. Well thank you everyone for joining us. And as always if you need anything
have any questions. Reach out to the action center and or reach out to us republic
services and we'll be more than happy to help. Thank