Pueblo City Council still trying to figure out how much to charge stores for abandoned shopping cart recovery
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) - It's a debate that's been going on for almost two years in Pueblo.
"Yeah, [there are] a lot of shopping carts around here," longtime Pueblo resident Lino Barajas said.
In 2024, the city council passed an ordinance setting the stage for how abandoned shopping carts would be collected, but no fine structure was put into place.
After Monday night's city council meeting, the structure still isn't set in stone, but a proposal from the city has been published. The resolution would charge the retailers, not the people who take the carts, for a pickup fee from the city.
According to officials, when the city collects the shopping carts, they will be taken to a recycling center, which is where the fee comes in.
The resolution starts with a $35 fee when an abandoned shopping cart is collected and impounded by the city. Then, for every day the cart isn't picked up, the city will charge retailers $2. If the cart isn't picked up within 30 days, then the city charges $15 per cart for disposal. There are also multipliers for retailers who have multiple carts picked up within any rolling 30-day timeframe.
However, almost 2 years after passing the original legislation to implement the shopping cart clean-up plan, some councilors still aren't sold on implementing any fees at all.
"Here's the crux of the problem with me. I own a business. Somebody comes in and steals from me, and then I'm charged for it. It is craziness," Council President Mark Aliff said at Monday's meeting.
During that same meeting, Councilor Joe Latino voiced support for anything that could help clean up the community. Mayor Heather Graham said that since they started working on the cleanup plan, some stores have come up with their own plans to manage their shopping carts better.
KRDO13 did reach out to King Soopers to see if they had changed any store policies, but as of 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, had not heard back.
At the end of public discussion, the council voted 4-3 to postpone the vote for two weeks until August 24. That's when the fee schedule discussion will be back on the agenda.
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