Everyone knows that Ironton faces several financial challenges, but city leaders seem to agree the most pressing may be that garbage continues to pile up.

Since the proposed $10 per month municipal fee was voted down last week, Councilman Jim Tordiff presented another revenue-generating alternative at Thursday's finance committee meeting. He seeks to increase the garbage rates by $2.50 per month, bringing the total to $12, to put the three laid off sanitation employees back to work.

"My main goal is that I don't think we are addressing very aggressively the sanitation backup in this city," he said. "I think we have a responsibility to the citizens."

The finance committee voted 2-1 against giving it a favorable recommendation, but the issue will still be on the agenda for consideration at next Thursday's meeting at 6 p.m. in the Ironton City Center. Councilmen Brent Pyles and Richard Price voted against a favorable recommendation. Councilman Chuck O'Leary cast the sole vote in favor.

Meanwhile, the city's 51-member AFSCME local 771 union still plans to strike at 6 a.m. June 7 unless both sides come to terms on wage and insurance negotiations and bring some of the nine laid off employees back to work. The union includes street, sanitation, flood, water and sewer departments, police dispatchers, income tax and water collection offices and the meter maid.

Nothing about the proposed increase would be set in stone. If another plan is adopted that addresses the sanitation issue, the increase can easily be repealed later, Tordiff said.

Councilman Bill Nenni indicated that he has sought input from other councilmen for a plan that will address a variety of financial shortfalls. He did not want to debate details until he has talked with the city attorney.

Mayor John Elam emphasized the need to do something soon to address the garbage problem that will become a safety issue.

"I am getting inundated with calls. My office is getting 30 or 40 calls a day wondering when garbage pickup will be," he said. "We are close to four days behind now."

All six employees are working eight hours a day to try and pick up the slack, the mayor said. The biggest problem has been that the garbage volume is higher now than during the winter months and that the employees are picking up 42 percent more than before.

Councilman Pyles crunched some numbers of his own and questioned how aggressively the situation is being addressed in terms of efficiency.

Calling it a completely unscientific study that relied on certain assumptions based on information provided and discussed publicly, Pyles compared the first eight days of May 2003 to May 2004. The calculations assume that all nine sanitation employees worked four hours a day in 2003 and that six employees are now working eight hours a day.

The findings showed that a total of 35 percent less tonnage was picked up this year, which is understandable because of fewer employees, Pyles said. However, his numbers show that the tonnage per man has decreased and the man hours spent per ton have doubled.

City employee Todd Davis agreed with the mayor that much of the issue is that trash collection always increases significantly during the spring and summer.

"We have spoiled the people in this town for so long," he said of all the items they pick up that they technically do not have to. "If we can physically pick it up, we put it in the trucks."

The union continues circulating petitions that seek a yes or no answer on the $10 per month, per household municipal fee. So far, the overwhelming response has been in favor of the fee, Davis said

Emphasizing that "you can't nickel and dime a $600,000 problem," Tordiff urged the council members to not give up on the fee that is the "simplest, quickest and probably at the top of the list as the fairest" way to generate revenue.