STEUBENVILLE — City Council got the revamped spring bulk pickup schedule it asked for, though it still didn’t pass muster.

At their March 3 meeting, several council members took Sanitation Supervisor Bob Baird to task for scheduling the LaBelle and Pleasant Heights neighborhoods at the top of the collection list even though they have the highest concentrations of college students. Councilwoman Heather Hoover complained that the students end up leaving their discarded items curbside weeks after their cleanup days have passed, leaving neighbors to call and complain until garbage trucks return to clean up the mess.

“You requested Pleasant Heights and LaBelle be last, which they are,” City Manager Jim Mavromatis said.

Hoover, though, was concerned because the free bulk collection draft Mavromatis circulated would have kicked off downtown during the second week of April.

“I feel like we’re not giving our residents downtown appropriate time (to prepare) because we want to start … (and) finish the first week of May, when typically we don’t finish until the third or fourth week of May.”

Mavromatis said they chose the dates based on employee availability, adding that the schedule is well publicized beforehand. Baird also pointed out they “typically always start (bulk collections) after Good Friday,” so the finish date isn’t really a factor.

“I don’t think those dates meet the needs of the residents on the hilltop I mentioned last week,” Hoover said, telling Mavromatis and Baird that she’d prefer they do “like last year — we started the third week in April.”

Councilman Royal Mayo said his concern is that if the dates assigned don’t work, “then we’re going to end up finding trash over the hill, tires stacked over by the water tower …”

Hoover proposed moving the start date to April 24, beginning with residents living downtown and in the south end and north end communities.

Asked if that would work, Baird told Mayor Ralph Petrella to “provide me with the schedule. We will be where we’re supposed to be, when we’re supposed to be there and we will get the job done.”

Mayo, meanwhile, complained that one of his constituents who was arrested in front of his children and spent three days in jail “thinks he was arrested unjustly.” The man, who was at the meeting, was never asked for his version of events before a warrant for his arrest was issued, Mayo alleged. He said the arrest was “basically on the word of another resident saying he did something to (him)” and that the man spent three days in jail on a $75,000 bond.

Mayo, complaining of “second-class citizenship,” said the man had been in court earlier in the day and had been bound over to the grand jury.

A search of court records indicated the individual had been charged with intimidation and waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Municipal Court, so the case was sent to the grand jury.

Councilman-at-large Joel Walker, a former police officer, told Mayo that in incidents like the one he described, “police do not file the charge.”

“You have to go talk to the city prosecutor, the Municipal Court, because that other person would have had to come down and sign the affidavit charging that man,” Walker said. “So the city prosecutor would have (decided), not the police department. The city prosecutor would weigh (the facts) and see if there’s enough for him to file the charge.”

Hoover also reported several residents of the Arlington Avenue alley are concerned that ambulances, fire trucks and garbage trucks aren’t able to get to their homes. She said there are five inhabited homes in the alley.

“I’ve heard sanitation trucks have to blow their horn a couple times to wake people up just to get through, that’s according to residents,” she said. “Two residences have multiple vehicles, and it appears to me one home has a concrete pad where they can park, but they have three vehicles — one of them is an oversized truck and a couple regular ones.”

• Council agreed to execute the University Boulevard and Wellesley Avenue sidewalk and pedestrian improvements project. During the meeting, a Lawson Avenue resident complained the work would benefit Franciscan University but said “many more sidewalks need to be taken care of,” telling council, “My sidewalk — the city doesn’t go up and fix it.”

• Ordinances amending the property maintenance code regarding collection of building demolition costs and authorizing Police Chief Ken Anderson to dispose of four used police vehicles currently housed in the department lot had their second reading. An ordinance appropriating an additional $5,000 to the Juneteenth celebration was given its first reading.

• A resolution designating March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month was accepted by Jefferson County Board of Developmental Disabilities Superintendent Mike Zinno. An ordinance designating March as Greek Heritage Month will be presented to businessman George Sergakis at his business, Yorgo’s, later this week.