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Home My WebLink AboutIR 9977 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 9977 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council January 24, 2017 h�T�i7 Page 1 of 4 �i {i7 Y *a SUBJECT: LITTER AND STREET SWEEPING UPDATE #qrF rn 10,?5 As part of the Fiscal Year 2016 budget, litter abatement was consolidated under the Code Compliance Department. Additional funding was approved for high-litter/gateway areas along 1-35 and 1-30 only. Ad hoc street sweeping provided by the Transportation and Public Works Department was also moved to Code Compliance as part of the litter abatement consolidation. While the new program had defined parameters/locations, Code Compliance recognized that mission creep would be inevitable with service requests/demands exceeding resources. Given this, the department immediately started working on finding ways to expand the program using economies of scale and collaboration strategies. New Litter Program Development In January 2016, Code Compliance held a Fort Worth Litter Summit attended by various City departments and multiple external stakeholders including the Texas Department of Transportation, BNSF Railway, Downtown Fort Worth, Inc., the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, the North Texas Tollway Authority, the Tarrant Regional Water District, the Trinity River Authority, the Fort Worth Independent School District, the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department, the Sierra Club, Texans for Clean Water, and others. Texans for Clean Water hired consultant Burns and McDonnell to determine the cost of litter and illegal dumping prevention and abatement in ten Texas cities, including Fort Worth. It is estimated that the City of Fort Worth, along with the other entities that attended the Litter Summit, spend approximately $8.3 million annually on litter and illegal dumping abatement. The various agencies reported the following activities in 2016: Entity Material Collected Tires Lane Miles/Area Served Code Litter Abatement Section 414.7 tons 5,734 1,045 Code Illegal Dumping Section 3,698 tons 22,989 City Wide TxDOT 1,421 cubic yards N/A 306 (6,170 acres) The Litter Summit initiated a conversation on how to better collaborate on common issues and the framework for developing a comprehensive litter plan. Action items included, but were not limited to: • Updated communication plans and procedures for taking citizen complaints and sharing data/resources between the various agencies. (Current/Ongoing) • Increased activity engaging commercial property owners to provide customer trash receptacles/address overflowing receptacles, routine parking lot litter clean-up, screening dumpsters/keeping lids closed/addressing overflows, etc. (Current— Commercial Enforcement Team) • Pilot pedestrian/street trash containers (unfunded — currently repairing old, broken and surplus receptacles) • Highway/underpass litter barrels (currently working on agreement with TxDOT) • Litter-Free School Contest (2017) • Developing a litter speaker's bureau with Keep Fort Worth Beautiful volunteers (2017) In 2016, the City also moved Environmental Management (Pollution) from TPW to Code Compliance. As part of that consolidation, Code Compliance has been realigning some solid waste services. The Household Hazardous Waste program is being moved from Environmental Management to Solid Waste (combining with citizen drop-off stations) and the litter education/prevention program is being moved to ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 9977 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council January 24, 2017 h�T�i7 Page 2 of 4 �i {i7 Y *a SUBJECT: LITTER AND STREET SWEEPING UPDATE #qrF rn f e'?5 Environmental Management to better align core services. In FY2017, Environmental Management will finish developing the comprehensive litter abatement plan. New Presbyterian Night Shelter Agreement When Public Health was merged into Code Compliance in 2009, the department approached Goodwill Industries about developing a temporary worker program at the Animal Shelter. This program, now going into its ninth year, has been very successful with many of the temporary workers moving on to full-time positions with the City and other employers. Building on this success, the City approached the Presbyterian Night Shelter and initiated conversations about using their homeless worker program to help clean-up litter. On November 1, 2016, they were awarded a contract to clean the Lancaster corridor from Jones Street to Riverside Drive seven days a week, twice a day, expanding the services they were providing for the Near Eastside Neighborhood Association. Street Sweeping The City has not provided systematic or routine street-sweeping in many years. Ad hoc street sweeping was provided by TPW for construction projects and high sediment areas until 2016 when the contractor doubled their bid for services. In October 2016, street sweeping was moved from TPW to Code Compliance. TPW retained equipment for cleaning up after road construction projects (older/end of life equipment). In November, Code Compliance received two light-duty and two heavy-duty sweepers. Additional vacuum trailers are working their way through the purchasing process now. The Department did not have enough funding to hire dedicated staff to operate the equipment. Instead, the equipment will be shared/deployed using existing staff. To limit the impact on existing services, maximize results, and stay within budget, the department developed the following strategies: • Equipment will be located at citizen drop-off stations. During off-peak hours, days, and seasons at the stations, staff currently assigned to the stations will operate the sweepers. • Staff assigned to manage community service crews will use the sweepers alongside workers that are picking up litter. • Illegal dumping equipment operators will rotate between street sweeping and traditional illegal dumping abatement (will not impact illegal dumping abatement). The Department sees great potential in the use of this equipment and the ability to gain some efficiency to serve more areas or serve high litter areas on a more routine basis. The initial sweeper routes have two major components: • Scheduled weekly sweeping —See attachment • Periodic sweeping of high sediment/litter arterials (East Lancaster, Main Street, etc.) and high use bicycle lanes (where debris is an ongoing problem) • Unscheduled/ad hoc sweeping to address problem areas, assisted by the Code Compliance litter abatement team The proposed street sweeping routes represent a 15 percent increase in mileage over historic ad hoc sweeping mileage previously conducted by the City and could increase by more than 30 percent as the program develops. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 9977 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council January 24, 2017 h�T�i7 Page 3 of 4 �i {i7 Y *a SUBJECT: LITTER AND STREET SWEEPING UPDATE #qrF rn f e'?5 Vehicle owners and towing companies are responsible for cleaning up debris after accidents. When this does not occur and a hazard is reported, TPW and/or Code Compliance will receive a work order. This is unchanged with the new litter program except that staff will now have street sweepers that will make it easier to pick up small debris quicker. Service requests in this area will probably have the greatest impact on existing resources, e.g. as requests increase, staff assigned to litter abatement will be spending more time street sweeping glass/debris. Existing Code Compliance staff addresses/enforces debris that is tracked or spilled on the roadway by construction projects and private property operations that have substandard surfacing (mud, clay, etc.). Violations are reported, often by other City departments, and by citizens to the City Call Center at (817) 392-1234. Code Compliance works closely with Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. on street sweeping DFWI contracts with Waste Partners and sweeps approximately 73 miles of Downtown streets weekly, which is approximately 7,500 gutter miles annually not including sweeping after special events such as the XTO Parade of Lights, Main Street Arts Festival, etc. The Department will sweep just outside of the downtown public improvement district. Code Compliance and TxDOT continue to work together to address debris/litter along State Highways and Interstates (TxDOT responsibility). As part of auditing City contractor performance, the City will be providing TxDOT with additional feedback on areas with ongoing/high volumes of litter. This includes U.S. Highway 287 and East Loop 820 where both the City and State have been performing additional litter sweeps. Reporting Litter, Debris and Illegal Dumping Citizens can report concerns to a single number: (817) 392-1234, or by email: 1234(a)-fortworthtexas.. ov. Call Center staff will determine how to route the call/work order to the most appropriate agency. David Cooke City Manager ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 9977 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council January 24, 2017 ,Fas +r Page 4 of 4 r i SUBJECT: LITTER AND STREET SWEEPING UPDATE X Yp73 o j W Ln 1 MONTGOMERY- W rF \ UNIVERSITY rF rF M m (D a m rD• FOREST-PARI'DK _ 3 rD r � - 8TH = I'D o o' HENDERSON TS F N1l Pq HEMPHILL IEN NINGS III ��51 MAIN �d 3 a $ 'n T O RIVERSIDE— WADERS IV ER5IDE n i MEADER5 PUTNAM a m o BEACH FOREST o HANDLEY s — � o 0 :o NDTTIN 1GHA11,9 A 0 C ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS