After months of complaints about missed trash pickups and other waste collection issues, Arlington County is ditching its current contractor in favor of its former provider.
The county announced today that it will be ending its contract with Bates Trucking and Trash Removal on Aug. 1, one year after Bates took over responsibility for providing curbside pickup for trash, recycling and organics — a change that almost immediately led to complaints from dissatisfied residents.
A company that uses self-driving robots to deliver food, groceries and online purchases has begun mapping out the streets and sidewalks of Arlington County.
Avride, a Massachusetts-based company that produces autonomous cars in addition to delivery bots, has deployed at least one “personal delivery device” to chart a two-mile radius in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. The initial phase is expected to last for about two weeks, according to a county webpage about the devices.
Arlington County has taken on a second waste contractor to help account for missed organics collections this spring.
The county hired Rockville, Md.-based Compost Crew to assist Bates Trucking and Trash Removal with collections starting on April 20. The cost is $9,920 per week, Katie O’Brien, spokesperson for Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services, told ARLnow.
Problems with missed collections appear to have persisted in the months since Arlington changed its trash contractor last summer, resulting in almost $1 million in withheld payments.
The county withheld more than $855,000 from its invoices to Bates Trucking and Trash Removal between August and January, Katie O’Brien, spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Services, told ARLnow.
A multi-year renovation project is about to begin at Arlington’s Water Pollution Control Plant.
The $32.2 million first phase will be part of an almost $200 million undertaking “to make the facility cleaner, greener and ready for the future,” county officials said in announcing the upcoming start of the initiative.
Just because a wipe says it’s “flushable,” that doesn’t mean it’s fit for Arlington’s sewage system.
That’s what the county’s Department of Environmental Services is reminding residents after a wad of wipes contributed to a sewage overflow last week at a ruptured sewage pipe upstream from Arlington on the Potomac River.
A new art space next to Jennie Dean Park is almost complete and scheduled to open to the public this spring.
Crews are currently putting the finishing touches on the 2700 Art Space project at 2700 S. Nelson Street, which began construction last August, said Alyson Jordan Tomaszewski, a spokesperson for Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services.
The threat of a major winter storm this weekend is now “high,” according to the National Weather Service.
The weather service said D.C. area residents should start preparing now for the storm, which is expected to begin Saturday afternoon or evening and peak Sunday morning.
Arlington County will begin its yearly post-holiday collection of Christmas trees starting next week.
A special pickup of the expired evergreens will begin next Monday, Jan. 5 and continue through Friday, Jan. 16.
Arlington’s summertime experiment using high tech to evaluate the state of sidewalks delivered mixed results.
The county used Kiwibots — laser-equipped robots — to roll up and down the sidewalks of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor for two weeks in July, assessing conditions.
As Arlington’s fleet of snowplows rumbled to life after this weekend’s snowfall, the vehicles bore a new set of playful names submitted by local residents.
They’re just as pun-packed as last year’s.
Preparations are underway for a wintry weekend in Arlington, with at least 1-3 inches of snow looking likely Saturday night into Sunday.
While some snow flurries are possible today (Friday), the accumulating snow in the forecast for later this weekend has brine trucks out on the roads in Arlington.
