by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington City Council heard about possibilities of privatizing trash collection at its work session Monday. They will not likely be privatizing it anytime soon or sell off their current sanitation system any time soon.

However, they might eventually expand it.

They also talked about paving roads in the Westborough subdivision and ideas from the Chamber of Commerce. (See video of full meeting here – click about 6:30 into the video for the start of the meeting).

As for trash collection, Wellington City Manager Shane Shields told the council he had received a proposal from a private company. They held a brief executive session to talk about dollar figures involved as that would have given an advantage other potential bidders over the company that gave them the information.

There were a lot of possibilities on how it would work, but the information was provided to see if the council even wanted to go down that road.  The waste collection department currently transfers around $70,000 into the general fund, and if trash collection were outsourced that would be gone. There would also likely be jobs eliminated, though those people could apply for jobs with a company that was hired to do the work.

This could also result in them having to raise rates at the transfer station, which could result in losing customers there.  They would also have to try to sell off their equipment.

After the executive session, they did tell the city staff to look into things like curbside collection and could expand that operation in the future.

In other matters:

The council discussed paving roads in the Westborough Road area, and a few residents were in attendance. Current cost estimates are between $350,000 and $400,000.

The area has some of the most expensive homes in Wellington, but it began as a dirt road.

Residents of that area will be assessed part of the cost, which is to be determined later but could end up being five or 10 percent. In most subdivisions, this is done when the subdivision is built, but it was not done in this case.

The residents in attendance seemed to be in agreement with that plan if they could get the road paved. It would be financed through a bond issue, and that means some percentage has to be paid by local residents. After they find out what the costs would be with different percentages assessed to residents, they may move forward.

It would be next year at the earliest before it could begin.

•Chamber of commerce director Annarose White told the council they want to get the high school ag shop class to build a Kiosk where they can put information about the city in a public place. The Antlers Hotel lot is the prime area being considered.

It would be a way to have information available to the public, especially to visitors, when the chamber is not open.

She also suggested creating some public bathrooms in the downtown area and some other improvement possibilities.

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