The Magnolia Springs Town Council was faced with unresolved problems that carried over from meetings last year to the first council work shop of 2011 on Tuesday.

The Magnolia Springs Town Council heard more complaints from a citizen concerned about the way recyclable materials are handled within the town’s limits.

The concerned citizen, who also brought the matter to the council in December, told the council she came back since the problem had not been taken care of “because she cared” about the town and the appearance the town projected.

She told the council the problem has not gotten any better and she is still finding debris in her yard and has noticed excessive trash stacked up against the container, which she reports are not picked up when the containers are dumped.

“Again the recycle container is overflowing. Even though they emptied it yesterday it still has trash outside the container. I would like to say that I have an impression that maybe Auburn has something to do with it because several of the boxes are rather large TV boxes,” she said.

She is not sure if the container in place is just too small to hold everything people are bringing or if people dropping materials off are just failing to place the materials in the container provided.

“Or they just didn’t bother and because they didn’t bother everybody else didn’t bother behind them. One box leads to more boxes which leads to more trash because if one person can do it like that, why bother to do it?” she said.

She also presented a possible solution to the council, suggesting the recycle bin be shared on a monthly basis between different areas of the town so everyone could share her experiences.

The town council has been considering alternative options for trash and recyclable material pickup.

Mayor Charles Houser announced Tuesday he has spoken to the store manager at the Family Dollar location expected to open later this week in Magnolia Springs about placing the recycle container behind the store.

“I have some news, not necessarily good news. I went to Family Dollar and talked to someone involved in opening the new store and the new store manager about putting the recycle bin behind the store. They were both receptive to the idea. I have put a call into Family Dollar’s offices on the premise that it would generate business for them. The store manager felt like they would be very accepting of it,” said Houser.

The town is also considering other alternate locations to keep where debris will be contained and not end up in residents’ front yards. Houser said he is open to considering any alternative locations suggested.

Baldwin County Solid Waste Department is the current waste provider for Magnolia Springs, but the town is also looking into other providers who may be able to offer curbside recycling pick-up twice a week for the same price residents are currently being charged, which would allow the town to get rid of the publicly available recycling container.

Council member Brett Gaar has been discussing the possibility of switching waste providers since council meetings in December, but he said the town was most likely stuck in a contract with Baldwin County Solid Waste Department for at least a year after the town gives notice of termination.

“The problem is we have a minimum of a year agreement with the county, we have to notify them if we are not going to use the county. They will do curbside service and garbage collection twice a week. They don’t have it set up now where they can do the quarterly debris pickup, but they feel they can do all that for the same price people pay now which is $45 per quarter. It will be a better solution than what we have now if everybody had curbside,” said Gaar.

Houser is committed to finding a short-term and a long-term solution.

“I think long-term the answer is to get us a service where we won’t have to have that. I am very hopeful that we will work something out with Allied Waste in a year, but hopefully we can get a contract with someone who will do curbside,” he said.

The town council also received an update on the purchase of signs to mark the Magnolia River. The signs were discussed at a meeting in December, but more research was presented to the council including price quotes.

The oval shape, which the council had already agreed upon, would drastically increase the cost. It was suggested instead the council consider a rectangular shaped sign with rounded corners and an oval border inside with the same design, which was proposed before. The signs proposed would be one sided and affixed to a 10-foot pole. The council was advised the largest feasible sign size would be 39x43 because anything larger would require a custom order.

Five price quotes were presented. All the estimates were slightly more than $2,000 per sign.

Alternate types of signs, including a cast aluminum sign with a vinyl design which would be priced around $300 and laser routed wood signs, are still being considered.

 The wood signs could be purchased from local vendors, but metal signs will most likely have to be purchased out of state and shipped to Magnolia Springs.