Tired of seeing mattresses tossed into alleys or secluded roads? Merced has plans for that

In an attempt to get people to stop dumping old mattresses and broken couches in alleyways or secluded dead-end Merced streets, city leaders are working on a plan to transport that junk to the landfill for free.

The Merced City Council narrowly passed the plan on Monday with a 4-3 vote to transform three parcels of land north of Yosemite Avenue and east of Highway 59.

The effort is estimated to cost $1 million to provide space to park street sweepers, work on some of the city’s vehicles and provide rolling garbage bins for the unwanted bulky items. Some of those uses would be temporary while others would stick around much longer, according to Ken Elwin, the city’s public works director.

Residents would bring their unwanted junk to the site and city employees would truck it about four miles north on Highway 59 to the landfill. Residents who take their waste directly to the dump are charged a fee, which some try to avoid by abandoning their junk around the city.

Mayor Mike Murphy and Councilmembers Delray Shelton and Fernando Echeverria cast the “no” votes against the plan. Murphy said he’d support a longer-term plan and was hesitant about spending money on a temporary site.

Officials said the transfer site would be for bulky items and would not take trash or green waste that should fit in a regular trash bin. The free program is estimated to be available to the public in July or August, Elwin said.

Merced launched an app — Merced Connect — in 2016 to help report illegal dumping, among other problems.

The site was formerly a rock sales yard called Boulders Unlimited and was acquired by the city in 2012, according to officials.

The contract for the work was awarded to Rolfe Construction Co. of Atwater, according to records.