Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
If approved by City Council at its Feb. 14 meeting, Sweet Home area garbage rates will increase by 5 percent in March, while transfer station rates will increase by 36.3 percent.
The increase will be the first in three years for Sweet Home Sanitation. For the transfer station, it is the first increase since 1993, said Scott Weld, Sweet Home Sanitation district manager.
Sweet Home Sanitation operates under a franchise agreement in which a city ordinance establishes the rates customers in the city pay for garbage service. A City Council vote is required to increase the rates. The council held the first and second reading of the ordinance amendment at its meeting on Jan. 24. It will hold a third reading and vote on the amendment on Feb. 14.
Among the reasons for the rate increase is higher gas prices, Weld said. Sweet Home Sanitation has had a contract for $1.05 per gallon for gas for the past three years. That contract ended with the end of 2005, and the company now is paying $2.19 to $2.25 per gallon.
“We’ve had a nice little benefit from that,” Weld said, but with the contract gone, rates will need to go up to help cover fuel costs.
The tipping fee at Sweet Home Sanitation’s landfill has gone up 3 percent per year over the past three years also, Weld said.
He said that that there are other expenses looming as well.
“I want to enhance our recycling program and buy a new container system,” Weld said. “This little bin (used for recycling right now) is inadequate.”
Sweet Home Sanitation will move to a 90-gallon container for recycling, Weld said. It will be picked up every other week, alternating with the yard debris program.
While analyzing the rate structure, Weld found out that the transfer station, located off 18th Avenue, has been supported by the residential garbage rate, he said. Many customers have been coming in from Lebanon and outside Albany.
“That tells you one thing,” Weld said. “It was pretty cheap to dump in Sweet Home.”
Sweet Home Sanitation will not add any materials to its recycling program, Weld said. Sweet Home’s recycling collection already exceeds that of the three Portland-area counties, and there really isn’t anything else it can add that is feasible to separate, he said.
Sweet Home Sanitation has added computers and electronics recycling at its transfer station, Weld said. Although it does charge for monitors and televisions, recycling other electronics is free.
Glass will remain separate, Weld said. Customers will retain the recycling bins they have now, so they can separate glass from plastics.
Sweet Home Sanitation will keep prices for 20-gallon mini-cans the same, leaving rates unchanged for fixed-income people and avid recyclers, Weld said. The price for that service is $9.90 bimonthly.
For 32-gallon weekly service, the price will be $20 bimonthly. For 35-gallon weekly service, the price will be $20.45 bimonthly, and for 90-gallon weekly service, the price will be $24.65 bimonthly.
The 35- and 90-gallon services use wheeled carts.
Commercial rates will be $24 for a 35-gallon cart and $28.25 for a 90-gallon cart.
Monthly rates for Dumpsters are $27.25 for one yard, $32.30 for 1.5 yards, $36.40 for two yards, $40.30 and $65.50 for four yards. For weekly services, the prices will be $98.40, $126.60, 156.05, $224.85 and $262 respectively.