DALLAS — This summer, the City of Dallas is expected to bring an update regarding its decision on its transition from alley trash pickup to curbside. 

During February’s City Council meeting, residents sounded-off and continue to do so ahead of the city’s announcement.

Monday morning is trash day, and Jack Kocks is usually up bright and early, making sure his unwanted items hit the road.

This routine has been the norm, with trash trucks driving down the alley in his Dallas neighborhood for more than four decades.

But now, he and his community may brace for a switch-up.

“Our alley is actually 10 feet wide. Many of them in the city are 8 feet wide. So, we’ve been told that we won’t be affected by this change. Which I don’t believe for a minute. I know how the city operates, I know there’s an appetite on the part of the sanitation department and likely the city manager to move all of the Dallas area trash pickup to the front of the home to the curbside pickup and that creates a different set of issues,” said Kocks.

For Kocks, it would require going through two locked gates, a tight and narrow path and lots of grass before his two large bins can make it to the curb.

“Even if we transition to curbside pickup, the fact of the matter remains that the city is not doing its job. Maintaining the alleys, enforcing code in terms of people trimming their trees in the back, and again buying the larger trash trucks, knowing that they would have difficulties navigating some of the alleys in the Dallas. To me, it’s irresponsible,” said Kocks.

Issues are also what triggered the city’s sanitation department to want to make the change from alley to curbside collection in the first place, citing how the narrow alleys cause worker safety and efficiency challenges.

“We have asked numerous times for the safety information to validate what is going on and what the safety issues are, and they won’t provide it to us, and they won’t provide it to the City Council either,” said Jim Collet, a Dallas resident.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to every member of the City Council and the city manager for this story, with no responses. City of Dallas representatives said no one was available for an interview. 

Collet and his crew have been showing up to City Council meetings expressing their displeasure in person — more than 13,000 people watching online and even have merch — all to make sure the city and the sanitation department continue to pick up their trash in the alley.

“The house was designed for the utilities to come in the back of the house. That’s the way the neighborhood was designed, that’s why the alleys were put there in the beginning,” said Collet.

Over the last two years, the City Council has been briefed on this trash topic frequently.

Kocks and Collet’s homes are part of the 94,000 locations where alley trash pickup occurs, while the city has 166,000 locations for curbside pickup.

Even after a citywide survey was sent out with nearly 100% of responding residents saying “yes” to keep alley trash pickup and more than half saying they were willing to pay, the future is still up in the air.

“At this point, we don’t know where they are all we know is that they had had a lot of feedback from people that this is not something that they want to do and yet we really still don’t know what their plan is,” said Collet.

During the February meeting, the sanitation director said this summer residents should expect info ahead of any service changes.

And if a change happens, it’s expected to start in February of next year. Kocks, Collet and their alley trash crew said they hope this doesn’t lead to wasted time and money.