(Daily News photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — A switch to automated trash collection in Iron Mountain may take place before the spring thaw, after the city council Monday approved an ordinance amendment that allows the plan.

City Manager Jordan Stanchina said details of a contract with GFL Environmental USA will be worked out before a “hard date” for the change is set — probably in March.

Most collections will be moved from alleys to the street, utilizing 95-gallon wheeled carts. GFL, however, is expected to do alley pickups in designated areas where topography is a problem. Based on feedback from residents, the city also hopes to offer smaller containers as an option, Stanchina said.

Rather than introducing a new collection system in the middle of winter, the city will likely have the switch coincide with the time when pickups are temporarily moved in early spring from the alley to the street, he added.

The ordinance change adopted Monday doesn’t commit the city to a contract but does offer the flexibility needed to go to a new system. The contract is still subject to city council review.

GFL, which took over trash pickups last year after acquiring Great American Environmental Services of Kingsford, introduced the idea of automated collections to hold down costs and prevent damage to alleys. Automated truck operators are able to control the lifting, emptying and return of a cart without ever leaving the cab.

In other action Monday, the Iron Mountain council:

— Discussed the Michigan State Tax Commission’s recent announcement that the inflation rate adjustment for 2023 property taxes will be the maximum 5% allowed under Proposal A. Property owners can expect to see the figure in assessment notices they’ll receive by the end of February. Changes in 2023 tax bills, however, will also depend on whether any millage rates are raised or lowered. “We’ll see,” Stanchina said of whether higher assessments will change the city’s budget outlook this spring. The actual inflation rate was 7.9% but Proposal A caps the growth in taxable value at 5% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. The 2022 inflation rate adjustment of 3.3% was the highest it had been in 15 years. Proposal A was adopted in 1994 and this is the first time the 5% cap has been reached.

— Reappointed Steve Harris to a three-year term on the City Civil Service Commission. With the Nov. 8 passage of a city charter change that removes entry level employees from civil service testing requirements, the duties of the city’s civil service boards have been lessened, Stanchina noted. The charter change — approved 1,469 yes to 1,130 no — will “greatly improve the city’s ability to hire new employees in what has become a very difficult hiring environment,” he said. The City Civil Service Commission will still come into play for the public works supervisor position, he added.

— Reappointed Robert Jayne to a six-year term on the Police and Fire Civil Service Commission and Kathleen Anderson to a three-year term on the City Tree Board.

— Learned that 26 deer have been harvested through the city’s managed archery hunt, roughly half of them by one hunter alone.