Columbus brewpub owner says city told him to get rid of dumpsters

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A downtown restaurant owner is headed into one of the busiest weekends of the year, but he has been left without anywhere to take out the trash.

Will Triplett, the owner and general manager of Elevator Brewery and Draught Haus, said he was told by the city last Wednesday to get rid of his dumpsters. For now, the city provided him with a temporary dumpster to get the business through the busy weekend, Triplett said -- but it came at at cost.

It will also only be permitted for 10 days -- with spring and summer, a busy season for business, on the horizon.

"For 23 years, there's been dumpsters in this alley, and the city is saying dumpsters are no longer allowed. We were given a three day notice. They pulled them over the weekend. And there's five businesses that don't have any place to put their trash in downtown Columbus," Triplett said.

The alley beside Elevator holds four to six dumpsters usually. Those service five businesses nearby including Elevator, The Forum, Subway and Haveli Bistro. On the other side of the alley is a residential building with 36 units.

Triplett has worked at Elevator for 21 years, and bought it in 2007, so he is left questioning why the dumpsters suddenly need to go. He said other areas of the city still have dumpsters in alleys.

"If you walk around Clintonville, German Village, Short North, anywhere downtown, even our surrounding areas, you're going to see waste containers, dumpsters in alleys or on sidewalks or near sidewalks," he said.

In the condo next door, Matthew Ungar said residents have asked the city to move the dumpsters.

"We also want to work with our neighbors, the restaurants that utilize the dumpsters, because we love having the restaurants here," Ungar said.

But he said the dumpsters cause noise early in the morning for collection, are hot spots for crime and cause issues getting in and out of the garage.

"We've tried to come up with alternative solutions, alternative places to put the dumpsters where it's about 100 feet away. But so it's not right in this alley where it creates a lot of issues for us," Ungar said.

But Triplett said he has asked the city for a number of alternatives, to which he was told no. He said he is most frustrated because he hasn't been offered any solutions.

"At this point, our options have been exhausted," Ungar said. "You can't do business if you don't have waste disposal."

Rumpke told NBC4 it was working with both parties to come to a solution. Under city code, it is a violation to have a dumpster blocking the right-of-way.