URBANA – If that beep, beep, beep that wakes you up in Urbana is not your alarm clock, but rather a garbage truck at 3 or 4 in the morning, the Urbana City Council may talk about solving your problem.

Urbana council members will talk at a study session Monday night about trash haulers who make too much noise too early in the morning

Meeting as a committee of the whole at 7 p.m. Monday at the city council chambers, 400 S. Vine St., U, the council will hear a proposed trial plan for haulers to change collection routes and times based on individual citizen complaints.

Steve Smith, owner of ABC Sanitary, 313 W. Eureka St., C, said his company has a 6:30 a.m. startup for his residential service.

"I don't find it necessary to go out at 4 o'clock in the morning," Smith said. "There is no need to have any residential hauling at 4 in the morning."

Smith said his crews meet at 6 a.m. and start service at 6:30 a.m.

"We're usually done by 3 to 3:30 (p.m.)," he said.

Smith said there could be some issues for large commercial operations needing to start earlier.

Merl Mennenga of MCI Services said he lives in Urbana and didn't even know there was an issue with noisy and early trash haulers.

"We don't actually start until 7:30" a.m., he said.

Public Works Director Bill Gray said if the trial plan of individual haulers dealing with individual complaints doesn't work, the city council could restrict the hours of trash collection in Urbana from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

In a memo to the council, Gray said Urbana has not previously regulated the hours of trash collection, but there have been complaints over the years.

More recent complaints included concern that trash haulers were collecting trash as early as 3 a.m.

Currently, 17 companies are licensed to haul trash in Urbana.

In a Dec. 7 meeting with city staff to discuss the proposed collection hour restrictions, hauler representatives expressed concern about contractual issues. Urbana schools require all garbage to be collected before 7 a.m., Gray said.

They also talked about safety issues, commenting that there are fewer conflicts with pedestrians, other vehicles and obstructions that begin later in the morning.

Gray said haulers agreed at the end of that meeting that it was in their best interest to "self-police" and address complaints to the extent possible.

Aldermen Charlie Smyth, D-1, and David Gehrig, D-2, met with the haulers and city staff.

Gehrig said he was happy to talk to the haulers and, if the plan works, it will be better than "bringing out the big hammer" of government enforcement.

"Nobody is in that business to make enemies," Gehrig said.

The "weak link" in the chain of the compromise is that if an Urbana resident is awakened at 4 a.m. by a trash hauler, it may be difficult to know which hauler was involved and the residents don't know who to call.

Smyth said council members received complaints from residents that trucks came into "very residential neighborhoods before 5:30 in the morning."

The trash haulers need to pick up trash from the schools early, but will try to keep to the outskirts of residential neighborhoods as far as early morning routes go.

Smyth said that in his west Urbana neighborhood, "there was a hauler that was coming in between 3:45 a.m. to 5:30ish, backing up and making a lot of noise."

Also Monday, the council will again discuss the possibility of expanding the city recycling program to include businesses. Establishing commercial recycling is a specific council goal.

Smyth, who has been advocate of the commercial recycling, said the city staff will present ideas to the city council.

Gray said the idea is to require haulers who pick up trash from businesses to offer recycling to those customers. One way they could do that, if they don't do it themselves, is subcontract for the recycling, he said.

The agenda also includes a discussion to discuss funding alternatives to video gambling.

A law to allow video gambling machines was passed as a way to help pay for a $31 billion Illinois capital construction bill.

But the law allows local communities to opt out and many, mostly in the Chicago area, have done so.

Mike Monson, chief of staff to Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing, said Prussing thinks cities are under pressure to allow video gambling to pay for construction projects.

"She doesn't think it's right," Monson said. "She does not like this as a funding source."