Residents will see higher fees for trash pickup on their June bill. The rate for a typical 48-gallon trash can will go up from $28.60 to $43.20 a month, with rate increases for trash containers of all sizes. Landfill fees also increased.
The borough assembly approved the higher rates May 24, which took effect immediately.
Public Works Director Tom Wetor last Wednesday said the rate increase has been long overdue.
“Our sanitation department has broken even for the last number of years,” Wetor said. “We’re not putting any money in the bank for any kind of replacement of equipment. We have a grant application for the loading dock, a garbage truck; and we had to pay for the (trash) bailer out of the general fund. That’s an enterprise fund. It should be able to sustain and support itself,” he said.
“We’re not trying to gouge people here or make a ton of money, but we are trying to replace equipment that we have and make replacements as they come.”
Households and businesses with larger trash cans will pay $49.60 a month for a 64-gallon container, and $62.40 if they use a 96-gallon can, up 4% and 9%, respectively, from the old rates.
The disposal fee for a 1-cubic-yard container increased to $105.60, a 71% increase from the old rate of $61.70.
The rate for 1.5-cubic-yard containers went up to $151.20, a 94% increase from $77.55. A 2-yard container costs $192 for disposal, up 86% from $103.20.
As for landfill charges, 1 cubic yard went up to $18 from $14, a 28% increase. Each additional cubic yard went up to $8 from $7.
The cost for disposing cars remained the same at $300 each, with no tires or fluids allowed. Tire disposal went up to $4 from $3 each.
Washers and dryers will be taken at the landfill for $40, up from $12. Refrigerators and freezers will be disposed of for $80, up 90% from $42. It costs the borough a lot more than that to dispose of the appliances containing the refrigerant freon, which was banned by federal law in 2020 — about $150 to $200 — but “that rate is being kept low to deter people from disposing of that out on Spur Road,” for example, Wetor said last Thursday.
Cardboard, glass and aluminum if separated remain free for disposal.
Right now, the borough charges containers by the cubic yard because it doesn’t have a scale big enough to measure all the trash. When the borough ships out its trash to an approved disposal site in Washington state, it gets charged by pound. That hurts the books when someone brings a cubic yard of Styrofoam and gets charged the same as a cubic yard of concrete.
“After we get a garbage truck and stabilize the department, we could look at upgrading and updating the scale,” Wetor said, so the sanitation department can charge by pound, too.
Wetor said he gets people don’t want to pay more — and that includes everyone who works at the borough.
“At the end of the day, we’re barely breaking even,” he said. “The last time the borough did an official rate study was in 2011. It said you should have this much money left over. They weren't accounting for a bailer. They didn’t have one piece of equipment accounted for. They didn’t even have the full picture.”
At the time, the borough chose to go with the lower rate. “We’ve kept rates low for a long time, but with the cost of inflation, that is hurtful for everybody,” Wetor said. “That is impacting us as well. We’re seeing the cost of materials and freight go up. We can’t just let these enterprise funds continue to not be able to pay for themselves.”
While it’s unfortunate the rate hikes across the borough departments have come down in the same year, Wetor said “it’s a consequence of trying to keep rates low for a really long time and then be hit with the worst inflation in four years. Those things coinciding have led to us not being able to maintain operations.”
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