Council Weighs Fee Increases, Service Cuts

DAVENPORT | City officials will decide later this month whether escalating fuel costs will mean residents will be paying more for their garbage collection or getting less service.

Tim Laux, assistant general manager for Florida Refuse, appeared before the Davenport City Council on Monday to seek relief for the trash hauling company that has seen its fuel costs rise by more than a third in recent months.

"They've gone up 37 percent from the time the contract was signed through April," Laux said.

The latest contract between Florida Refuse and the city has been in place since last July and calls for city residents to pay $14.15 per month for two-day-per-week trash collection. Recycling is not available in the city.

Laux offered three alternatives for the city.

One would be to continue the same service with a 90 cent increase in fees to $15.05.

The second would be to keep the current fees but reduce the number of pickups to once a week and add recycling service.

A third choice would be to change to automated service. That would require customers to use special trash containers provided by Florida Refuse that would allow trucks to pick them up with automated arms instead of them being collected and emptied manually.

With this option, recycling also would be provided, but the fee would increase 9 cents to $14.14 per month.

Mayor Pete Rust said the contract allows the rate increase if it is added as a fuel surcharge because of the rising costs.

"I've got a feeling this is not going to be the end of this," he said. "Everybody can understand this. Everybody goes to the (gas) pump."

But Council member John Lepley complained about the service.

"There are trash cans all over the yards," he said. "I don't want to see those all over my front yard or out in the street."

But Rust said the company isn't responsible for that.

"I don't fault Florida Refuse for that," he said. "The wind does blow and (the cans) go all over the place."

If the council decides to go with the automated service, customers will have to start putting their trash out at the curb at the front of their homes. Collection for much of the city is now done in the alleys that run behind the homes in the older parts of town.

Council member Brynn Summerlin pointed out that when the city starts to put in sewer service to those sections residents are going to have to get used to putting their trash out front because the alleys will be torn up as sewer pipes are laid.

The council will decide the trash collection issue at its next meeting which will be held May 27.

[ Mike Grogan can be reached at mike.grogan@theledger.com or 863-421-5811. ]