Mayor: Homewood pickup days will shift; city to mail notices and post interactive map

Mayor McCleskey updated the council on service changes the Cahaba Solid Waste Authority plans to implement to balance collection routes and provide more consistent, earlier route completion. He said the changes respond to customer feedback about late pickups and aim to have trucks finish earlier so residents find empty cans when they return home.

“We want to be able to have people get their cans picked up early in the morning, and then by the time they get home, their cans are completely empty,” McCleskey said, describing the rationale behind the changes. The mayor said the city will send a bright yellow mailer to affected residents and publish an interactive Google map on the city website where residents can enter their address and see their new pickup day. He said most affected addresses will change only once and that the city expects to swap days the Monday after spring break.

Councilors asked whether the authority’s contractual pickup‑by‑time (currently by 7 p.m.) would change; the mayor said that timing is controlled by the authority and that the city will continue to press for improvements. Councilors also noted a complaint remedy in the contract that imposes response obligations (four hours was the time frame referenced during questions).

The mayor urged councilors to help spread the word as residents receive mailers and the map goes live.