Marion County solid waste customers will see a bigger bill beginning at the first of the year if the Board approves a proposal seeking higher fees.
The Marion County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance proposing an increase of $4 per month effective Jan. 1, 2018. The total fee would rise to $15 per month. Earlier this year, the Board had raised rates by $1 to $11 per month in a move that took effect in April. The rate increase comes on the heels of an increase passed on from the county’s garbage provider Waste Pro. City officials voted last month to increase rates effective Oct. 1 for the same reasons.
“Due to the increased costs, we’re coming up short each month,” County Board President Calvin Newsom said. “The increase that we recently received is what triggered it. They went up 11.33 percent and we’ve already been informed that the index will rise again next year.”
In August 1992, the Marion County Board of Supervisors adopted an order establishing a garbage disposal service for the county, according to information included in the most recent Board order. The first fee established in Marion County was $6 per month and that fee remained in effect until December 2005, when it was increased to $10 effective Jan. 1, 2006. The $10 fee was in effect until March 2017, when the Board of Supervisors voted to raise fees by $1 to $11.
At a recent meeting, Waste Pro representative Chris Lockwood explained that the increases were all part of the county’s contract and that rates had not been raised to the county for several years.
The $15 fee will be assessed to each single-family residential household in the unincorporated areas of Marion County. The matter will be discussed and acted upon at a hearing at 10 a.m. on Nov. 6. In the meantime, the county will advertise the proposal before a final vote.
Newsom said the decision to increase fees on residents was a difficult one.
“We didn’t have any choice,” he said.
