Trash collection fees going up in Dayton

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By Joanne Huist Smith, Staff Writer Updated 10:43 PM Wednesday, February 3, 2010

DAYTON — City of Dayton trash customers will pay more for the service beginning with their April bills.

In a four-to-one vote, City Commissioners Dean Lovelace, Joey Williams, Nan Whaley and Matt Joseph pushed through an emergency ordinance raising annual waste collection fees from $91 to $113, beginning with April bills. The rate increase will generate $1.3 million annually for the city.

“Without that increase, we would have to make further budget cuts,” said City Manager Tim Riordan, adding staff proposed the increase in November as a way to balance the 2010 budget.

Mayor Gary Leitzell said he could not vote for an ordinance that both increased the cost to residents and decreased service. Dayton customers will still have trash pick-up once a week, but bulk waste pick-up goes from twice per month to once.

“I think we need to look at alternative ways of saving money,” Leitzell said.

The mayor suggested the city explore ways to reduce tipping fees paid to Montgomery County for dumping trash and recyclables.

In 2008, Dayton paid $38.25 per ton for trash disposal, or about $2.36 million for the year. Tipping fees for recyclables cost much less at $14 per ton or about $31,864 per year.

“Recycling cost less. The goal, in terms of a long-range budget solution, is to get more people to recycle,” Whaley said. “I know it’s hard for all of us to do these kinds of things, but it is part of governing.”

Whaley and Williams both said Leitzell’s suggestion should be researched, but said the reality of the mayor’s solution is that it would not generate enough money to prevent a budget shortfall.

About 27 percent of Dayton’s residents recycle, but only account for about 3 percent of the city’s waste stream. To generate the desired $1.3 million, recycling would have to make up 88 percent of the city’s waste steam.

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