By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington aldermen have voted to raise the cost for garbage collection, while at the same time they reduce some solid waste services and slash the city government’s budget deficit by $1.1 million dollars.
The ordinance, enacted on a 6-3 vote, also encourages residents to produce less garbage because fees won’t rise initially for the smallest garbage containers.
Free bulk waste collection will be reduced to just twice a year, in the spring and fall, instead of every other week at no extra cost.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott Laughlin’s interview with Bloomington Interim City Manager Steve Rasmussen.
Fees will rise by $4 per month for 65 and 95 gallon carts for the fiscal year starting in May.
Fees will not rise for 35 gallon carts, but there will be across-the-board three percent annual increases to begin May of next year.
The council’s decision came two weeks after aldermen opted not to investigate privatizing refuse pick-up.
Council member Joni Painter preferred everybody paying the same to maintain an extremely popular service.
“When we considered privatizing, most everybody that I heard from loved our garbage service and they want to have bulk collection every other week,” said Painter.
Aldermen David Sage and Karen Schmidt also voted no. Both were opposed to three percent annual fee increases beginning next year.
“We shouldn’t just assume that we’re going to build that reserve on the backs of our residents,” said Schmidt.
“Maybe we ought to be making some efforts to build some reserves from our overall structure that includes proposals we have not even had a chance to evaluate yet,” Schmidt also said.
There will be no change in brush collection.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
