Fee increase over trash collection raises stink in Struthers

BY JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

STRUTHERS — The mayor and the city council are at odds over whether city residents or the city’s trash hauler should pay a new fee increase for garbage collection.Council member Dan Yemma says the mayor should have signed a resolution by council that protests Allied Waste’s passing on to city residents a state-mandated fee increase that went into effect Aug. 1.

Mayor Terry Stocker said he won’t sign the resolution because he doesn’t believe the company has a choice.

The two interpret language in House Bill No. 1, the budget bill that passed in July, differently. Yemma says that law simply allows the company to pass on the fee. Stocker says the law requires it to do so.

Council passed its resolution unanimously at a meeting last month. The resolution says that Allied Waste should honor a 3-year-contract effective in May and not pass the fee increase on to city residents.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.