The reserves are on the way and they could be here next week.

On Monday the City Council approved the expenditure of $579,200 for the purchase of two sanitation trucks from Ohio. This will increase the city’s fleet of operable trucks to nine, which is still shy of the 14 needed to cover routes for the weekly collection of trash and recyclables.

With another three new trucks on order that could be delivered later this fall plus the repair of trucks that have been sidelined, Mayor Frank Picozzi said Tuesday the city would be on track to resume the collection schedule. He is not looking for the city to purchase additional trucks, as apart from the cost, that would put the city “in the same position were in today” (the aging of the fleet to the point where the trucks outlive their useful lives at the same time).

Highway Chief Rick Gallant found the trucks, a 2020 and 2021, online on September 13. Picozzi wasted no time in checking out the find.

Picozzi said Tuesday that he did his research on it and realized it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up. The company will be delivering the vehicles to them within four to five days from the time they receive their payment.

“They are a great deal,” Picozzi said.

Council President Steve McAlister said that Picozzi and the administration didn’t have to bring forward the truck proposals for council approval and could have purchased them through an emergency order.

“I just want to commend you (Christy Moretti) and the Mayor, and the administration for bringing this forward. This is the number one issue we are hearing right now about the garbage,” McAlister said Monday night. “The work that the men and women are doing over at the sanitation department is to be commended. They are working long days and long nights and we appreciate that.”

Finance Director Peder Schaefer in a memo to the Council ahead of the meeting said that the Public Works Department has made its case that additional sanitation vehicles are required to the three that are on order for delivery in November.

He said that the final source of the funds would be identified in the revised 2022 budget that is submitted in May.

In his memo he identified four likely sources. One being an increased fund balance availability [due] to excellent full year 21 city financial performance.

Another possibility would be continued availability of undesignated ARPA funds that qualify by revenue loss and are thereby available for general government services.

Also on the American Rescue Plan Act front, Schaefer said that one of the sources could be possible expenditure qualifying ARPA funds to the extent existing vehicle downtime is associated with the pandemic.

The final likely financing source is reduction in overtime costs associated with having a full or expanded fleet available during normal working hours.

For months Picozzi and his administration have dealt with impacts of the City’s aging fleet. As recently as last week only seven out of their fleet of 15 trucks were operable.

Over the last couple weeks their issues have been compounded with the fact that they haven’t been able to get the needed parts to make necessary repairs. This has caused the City to make crucial decisions on what to do temporarily.

Last week Picozzi suspended the requirement that residents bring their recycling bins to the curb each week and instead could just have their trash picked up, as a way of alleviating some of the delays in garbage and recycling being picked up. While it was meant to be a way to help the current situation Picozzi said Monday he doesn’t know if or when he will re-implement the policy.

Additionally the city created a temporary recycling transfer station at the city compost station behind Mickey Stevens Sports Complex to help with the situation.

Like the recycling bin policy, it is undetermined at this time if the transfer station will become permanent in Warwick.

While the City is still waiting on parts to fix some of their older sanitation trucks, Picozzi said that the new trucks would help restore a sense of normalcy to trash and recycling pick-up.

”It's going to go a long way to alleviating our problems,” he said.