The New Carlisle City Council has voted to accept the bid submitted by Waste Management to continue the city’s trash pick-up for another four years. However, New Carlisle’s City Manager, Randy Bridge, explains that even though Waste Management will continue providing trash service to the city, some changes will be made to the city’s trash collection and fees.
According to Bridge, the new contract will rectify some oversights in the old trash contract that allowed for some discrepancies in how trash could be placed at curbside, causing at least one violation to New Carlisle’s city code.
Under the old contract with Waste Management, bags of garbage could be placed curbside. Bridge says that is not allowed in city code. When new contract takes effect, uncontained bags of garbage can no longer be placed for pick-up. “Not only is the change in keeping with city code,” explains Bridge, “It also promotes a clean environment by keeping trash contained and keeping animals out of the garbage.”
Another change that residents need to be aware of is that garbage and recyclables will only be allowed to be placed into Waste Management receptacles for pick-up, no private containers will be permitted to be used. Bridge explains the change makes trash pick-up easier. Waste Management will provide the first container for free, but will charge for additional containers.
Bridge also explains that every address must have its own trash service, “According to city code, every residential single family and two-family homes must have trash service registered to their name. ‘Family A’ and ‘Family B’ cannot split trash service. If someone owns a rental property, they must have trash service for that property registered in their name, not to their tenants.”
Residents who currently get their trash picked up in an alley-way will have to move their garbage to curbside pick-up, “The weight of the heavy garbage trucks going in and out of alleys damages our alley ways because they were not meant to carry that kind of load. It also causes problems for the trucks and can cause damage to them as well,” says Bridge.
Residents will also be allowed to begin putting yard waste into the regular trash containers, instead of keeping it separated in special bags.
There will be one big change that residents will begin feeling in their pocketbook. New Carlisle residents currently pay a flat rate for trash disposal, regardless of their household size. That will change once the new Waste Management contract takes effect.
“We tiered this contract out on a service level. So now, households eligible for low volume service won’t be paying the same amount for trash service as a household that requires standard service,” explains Bridge. The new billing is also a big change for seniors who are 65 and older because there are now parameters in place that make a senior rate available to them. Seniors will be able to sign up for the reduced rate on Waste Management’s website. Seniors without computer access can call the city for directions on how to get help getting paperwork sent to Waste Management.
The city council approved the new contract without administration (admin) fees as a way to “pay the citizens back” for using the admin fees for the current trash contract to help keep the general fund in the positive for three of the past four years. According to Bridge, trash collection admin fees are supposed to be used to repair streets damaged from the weight of the garbage trucks running over them. Now that the general fund is a bit healthier, money can be transferred from the general fund to help with street repair; and since the current trash admin fees helped with the general fund instead of street repair, the city council felt not charging admin fees in the new trash collection contract was the right thing to do for citizens who had not seen street repairs in recent years.
Bridge says questions about the new contract should be directed to the city at (937) 845-9492 since Waste Management is not yet prepared to answer questions pertaining to the changes.
