Expect Suffolk City Councilman Curtis R. Milteer Sr. to talk trash – at least twice a month.

The Whaleyville councilman has vowed to continue his vocal crusade to bring automated trash collection to his rural district by raising the issue at every council meeting until it happens.

&uot;The trash cans in the southern part of the city have not been delivered,&uot; Milteer said. &uot;We think it is past due…and that the city needs to be fair and equitable.

&uot;I am going to continue voicing that concern until those cans are delivered. The citizens deserve nothing less.&uot;

As things stand, it will be at least the spring of 2006 before automated trash service rolls into downtown Whaleyville, said Assistant Public Works Director Wesley King. He is overseeing the expansion of the automated service.

The city, which introduced automated collection in the more urban parts of the city about two years ago, is phasing in funding to complete citywide automation over the next three years, King said.

The proposed 2006 operating budget includes funding for two additional automated trash disposal trucks, he said. Those trucks will be used to provide pickup service in Holland and Whaleyville and several subdivisions in northern Suffolk.

The decision of which communities received automated pickup first boiled down to getting the biggest bang for city’s buck, said King.

&uot;It was all economics,&uot; King said. &uot;To make the automated program pay for itself, we had to start with the areas with the highest density of housing.

&uot;The efficiency is not as high is outlying rural areas because the houses are more sparse.&uot;

The one exception is along the city’s high-speed corridors – U.S. routes 460, 58 and 13 – where city garbage trucks have been involved in several serious collisions in recent months, King said.

Luckily, the city employees who work on the manual trucks have escaped any serious injury, he said. But the people driving the vehicles involved in the collisions often suffer serious injuries.

In reality, automated collection is only available in about 20 percent of the city’s 430 square miles, said King. But by hitting the densest areas first, he estimated than 70 percent of the city’s population is receiving automated pickup.

Whatever the details, Whaleyville residents says they still want the big green trash cans that the city distributes free in communities receiving automated service.

Ella Benson, who recently moved to Clover Lane from Chesapeake, was surprised to find that automated collection wasn’t provided in her new home.

&uot;Everybody is Chesapeake has it,&uot; she said. &uot;I really didn’t think about it until I got out here.

&uot;It really doesn’t matter but it would be kind of nice to have one big can that I put everything in and wheel out to the road once a week.&uot;

Mike Griffin, a Whaleyville Boulevard resident who began receiving automated service three weeks ago, has found pros and cons to the service.

&uot;It’s kind of aggravating when you have so much trash that the can is full and the leftover has to wait until the next week,&uot; he said.

&uot;But those of in the southern part of the city don’t always seem to get the same privileges at the same time as those in northern area,&uot; he said. &uot;We always get left out.&uot;

allison.williams@suffolknewsherald.com