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Youngstown selects new residential garbage hauler
YOUNGSTOWN
The city is changing residential garbage haulers with the new company charging less than the current provider — and a significant reduction from the amount city officials expected to pay.
But the city’s 22,000 residential garbage customers, who saw their rate cut by $1 a month beginning in January, shouldn’t count on another reduction.
“I’m not willing to say that now,” city Finance Director David Bozanich said Thursday about a second rate decrease.
City officials had anticipated the existing rate of $8.70 a month per residential customer from Ohio Valley Waste Service Inc. to increase by 20 percent to 25 percent under a new contract that takes effect April 1, Bozanich said.
That would have increased the monthly cost to about $10.44 to $10.88.
But Ohio Valley kept its rate the same, and the lowest proposal came from Waste Management of Ohio Inc. at $8.45 a month per customer.
The board of control voted Thursday to sign a two-year contract with Waste Management with a two-year mutual option at the recommendation of Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department.
Waste Management served as the city’s residential garbage hauler in the past. Ohio Valley is finishing its fourth year handling that service.
The city lowered its residential garbage fee by $1 beginning last month from $15.75 to $14.75.
A financial audit of the city for the year 2011, released in December, states the city overcharged residents $1.6 million for garbage removal in 2011. It was a $1.2 million overcharge in 2010. That led to the city’s decision to reduce the residential garbage fee by $1 a month, which will still likely leave the garbage- removal budget with a large surplus.
The monthly fee charged to city residents for garbage includes an annual contract expense of about $50,000 to $60,000 to remove dead animals, Shasho said.
It also includes expenses for litter control and health-code compliance workers and programs, Bozanich said.