Following the untimely of Pat Wilcox, a temporary city employee who was killed while performing his job last week after being struck by another vehicle, the council voted to suspend yard debris pick up during Thursday night’s executive committee meeting.
“Obviously last week, we had a tragic accident that cost us one of our employees that worked on our yard debris pickup truck,” City Manager Brian Watkins said when addressing the council. “The others in that crew who was with him at that point, one of them has moved on to another position and the third one is in counseling and our truck is basically being impounded.”
While the police department has kept the vehicle for investigation purposes, an insurance company is in the process of reviewing the vehicle from the incident. Watkins said these unfortunate circumstances have left city officials with a difficult decision.
“What we want to do is to try and inform the city, that we would like to suspend yard debris pickup, which we normally do once a week,” Watkins said.
Watkins suggested this action would allow the city to reconstitute the yard debris crew and to make sure the city truck is able to resume regular activity.
“This will also give us the opportunity to review all of our procedures to see if there is something we might do that would increase safety for our crews when they are out doing that work,” Watkins said.
The motion was made by council and passed unanimously.
In a press release from public works encourages residents to transport yard debris materials to the Santa Rosa County Central Landfill located at 6337 Da Lisa Road. Residents are advised that a minimum tipping fee of $3 is charges by the landfill. Look for an update as to when the service will be re-established at www.srpressgazette.com.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: City suspends yard debris service following employee death