LA MARQUE — In a split vote, council members this week tentatively approved a 20 percent rate hike for garbage collection.
Soon after the rate was approved, however, the councilman who had pushed for the increase suggested the council should reconsider.
In a 2-1 vote, the council gave the OK to raise residential rates $2.65 per household. The increase is supposed to offset equipment costs for the city’s contractor, Republic Waste, which will convert the city’s trash pickup from regular curbside to a system using polycarts. Polycarts are trash bins that are lifted directly to the truck through an automated system and are not emptied by hand.
The system requires trucks and the carts that will be purchased with some of the money generated by the rate increase, Bryan Boyer, the company’s general manager, said.
For the new $15.95 per month rate, residents will receive twice-a-week trash pickup, one of the 96-gallon polycarts and once-a-month bulk trash pickup.
Residents opposed to the plan are concerned about bulk waste pickup from the curb.
Under the city’s original contract, the trash company would pick up anything left curbside, with the exception of large appliances.
Under the new contract, only those items that fit within the polycarts would be picked up until the once-a-month bulk trash pickup dates.
Any bulk trash, including yard debris, picked up on other days, would cost the homeowner extra.
The $1.90 increase for bulk trash pickup service was one of the main reasons councilwoman Connie Trube voted against the rate plan.
“I have concerns with senior citizens who will not be putting out a lot of heavy duty stuff,” Trube said.
She said a plan that offered bulk pickup on a call-in basis would “be cheaper in the long run.”
Unlike Texas City, Hitchcock and Dickinson, La Marque does not offer discounted garbage rates for senior citizens.
Councilman Larry Mann, who was one of the advocates for the new system last year and who voted, along with Councilwoman Deanie Barrett, for the new plan, called for the council to revisit the issue.
“I was led to believe if the city went this way the costs would go down,” Mann said. “I guess it’s something we need to bite the bullet on, but I was told the rates would be lower.”
While Republic Waste’s presentation indicated the company would cut costs by going to the new system because it would require fewer employees and fewer trucks, Boyer did not respond to Mann’s assertion that the company had pledged to lower collection rates.
Before the rates are final, the council must first vote twice on a new ordinance that sets the fee schedule.
+++
By The Numbers
Garbage collection rates
La Marque: $15.95+
Dickinson: $15.08*
Hitchcock: $12.18*
Texas City: $10.50*
+ Still needs two council votes to be set
* City offers discounted rates for senior citizens
Rates are per month and include twice-weekly curbside trash pickup.
