CAMPBELL — City residents were recently given free 96-gallon garbage containers, though the items also came with initial confusion.

“Some of the information on the flyers in the cans was incorrect. It was different from what (residents) heard from city hall,” George Levendis, city council president, said.

During Mayor Bryan Tedesco’s monthly town hall meeting Wednesday evening at the Campbell community center in Roosevelt Park, Levendis was referring to confusion about a discrepancy in garbage pickup rates, which caught some residents off guard.

“Everybody was panicked, but nothing’s changed,” Tedesco said.

In January, the city renewed its contract with Republic Services, which will expire Jan. 1, 2028. This year’s monthly residential trash pickup rate is $16.50 and is slated to increase 75 cents to $17.25 per month in 2025, per a city ordinance, Levendis noted. He added that a goal is to have “a minimal increase,” specifically, to keep the residential amount under $20 per month for the life of the current contract.

Another priority is to keep the city’s garbage fund solvent. When Tedesco took office in 2021, the fund was slightly more than $32,000 in the red. Thanks to a $2 monthly increase last year, however, it is about $5,730 in the black, Levendis noted.

“We’re barely, barely, barely breaking even,” he said. “We’re not going to make money on trash.”

Also during the one-hour session, at which several dozen attended, a representative with Republic Services answered several residents’ concerns and questions relating to the cans and trash pickup. Attendees were advised to keep the 96-gallon containers away from mailboxes, telephone poles and other obstacles when placing them at the curb.

In addition, residents were advised to place discarded mattresses in plastic or a tarpaulin before taking them out to be collected.

Also at the meeting, Tedesco announced that, to further rid the city of blight, the former post office building on Robinson Road and the closed Christy’s Pastry Shoppe on 12th Street are slated to be torn down. Bids are scheduled to be heard next week regarding razing the post office building, the mayor said.

Removing the post office also is part of a larger ongoing process to get rid of derelict structures in the city, the bulk of which have been many of the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. homes on Robinson Road and surrounding areas. At the same time, city officials are trying to bring manufacturing jobs and a full-service grocery store to Campbell.

Also, officials are in discussions with a company to invest in making a variety of improvements to Roosevelt Park. The acreage is largely underused, and a major goal is to increase the number of sports tournaments at the park, which can cause more people to come to the city and take advantage of its additional offerings, Levendis said.

In addition, efforts are continuing to secure funding for brownfield remediation work, Tedesco and Levendis said.

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