Kent City Council OKs $1.6M infrastructure bid amid waste collection complaints

The Kent City Council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, was brief to allow city leaders to participate in National Night Out.

The city honored Sarah Halstead as Employee of the Month for her outstanding work coordinating the city’s National Night Out teams and other community engagement initiatives.

The council also addressed a public comment regarding the ongoing garbage strike, which has left residents without collection for two weeks.

Finally, a significant $1.6 million bid was approved to re-line Kent’s sanitary sewer pipes, a project that is expected to add 50 years to the system’s lifespan.

National Night Out

The council met a little earlier and the meeting ran shorter than usual, in order to free up everyone to participate in National Night Out, an annual event that brings neighborhoods together to improve community and public safety. Mayor Dana Ralph said there were around 65 different neighborhood groups in Kent that had officially registered their gatherings this year. Throughout the evening, teams made up of members from the fire department, police, and other city staff pay a visit to each group.

Employee Of The Month

The organizer of these National Night Out teams, Sarah Halstead, was honored as August Employee Of The Month. Halstead was originally hired by the city in 1998, eventually becoming the Community Education Coordinator. In addition to her hard work coordinating teams for National Night Out, Halstead runs the Community Police Academy. Police Chief Rafael Padilla said she is an important community connection for the police, improving safety education and crime prevention.

Garbage Strike Causing Problems

One public commenter spoke at this meeting, sharing his concerns over Republic’s ongoing sympathy strike. He said that labor disputes in other parts of the country should not affect the service in Kent, and added that there has now been two full weeks of no garbage collection. He shared that Republic has not even been willing to credit customers for the missed pickups. He wants the city to take a look at the contract with Republic, and make some changes. Future contracts should automatically credit customers for missed pickups, if the provider is choosing not to collect garbage. He recognized that while there have been some collection events where residents could bring their trash, individuals have to do that at their own expense which will not be reimbursed, and it’s just not practical to bring a dumpster full of trash to a second location.

After his comment, Mayor Ralph recognized the difficulty with the missed collections, and said the city is currently in conversation with Republic about crediting money back to customers.

Bid Approved For Sanitary Sewer Pipe Lining

The council approved a $1.6 million dollar bid to re-line the city’s sewer pipes. Public Works Director Chad Bieren explained that lining the pipes adds around 50 years to their lifespan, and is much cheaper than replacing the entire sewer system. The engineer’s estimate for the project was $1.75 million.