By Brian CHERNICK

Glendale City Council convened on Tuesday two members short as Zareh Sinanyan and Ara Najarian are out for various reasons. Still maintaining a quorum, the council voted to begin the process of replacing the garbage and recycling bins citywide.

The automated containers, which allows residents and businesses to separate their trash, green waste and recycling, are due for a facelift and council will be adopting more cost-effective receptacles.

Currently Glendale’s containers have a unique color scheme that includes burgundy for trash, which is typically black in other cities. The burgundy color costs the city an additional $2,500 per order, regardless of order size, which occurs every one to two years. The additional cost is due to the factory’s need to flush its system of the previously used color to produce Glendale’s special color.

The changes to the containers will bring all three bins to a standard black color with black, green and blue lids to differentiate between trash, green waste and recycling, respectively.

“Most of our containers are 20 to 25 years old,” director of Public Works Roubik Golanian said. “Every year we have been spending $80,000 just to repair these old containers. We’re done with Band-Aids and duct tape, so it’s time to replace.”

According to the Public Works Dept., each container will cost approximately $50 and, based on the provided timeline, the distribution of the new containers will begin in the winter of 2018. Initial focus will be on the northern and southern edges of Glendale and then will move inward in phases that might take upwards of 30 years based on current replacement schedules.

The council was also presented with a report by the Glendale police and fire departments that detailed the departments’ ongoing training for man-made and naturally occurring emergencies. The focus of the presentation was on active shooter preparedness in the light of recent events across the country and the world in the last few years including the shooting in San Bernardino and in Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and the numerous car attacks in Europe.

Community training has been a priority for the departments that highlight the proper responses of “Run, Hide or Fight” when residents are encouraged to evacuate if it is safe, stay in place if not and to only fight back as a last resort.

Glendale Police and Fire have partnered in training since 2014 in order to strategize the role of each department in a crisis.

According to Deputy Fire Chief Bill Lynch, the 2013 shooting at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) sparked the need for the departments to work in tandem to develop tactics.

“One of the issues that occurred during that incident was a [lack of] communication and lag time getting to the [victims],” Lynch said. “Our partnership here in Glendale with police and fire has addressed that situation and we continue to work together. I think our training has been extremely effective.”

  Brian CHERNICK