Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register
Springfield residents without garbage service could soon find themselves assigned to one of the city’s four private waste haulers in an effort to clean up neighborhoods.
The Springfield City Council, at a committee of the whole meeting Tuesday, advanced to next week’s meeting a proposal that would allow the city to assign residents not currently paying for garbage pickup to a hauler and add the cost to their City Water, Light and Power electric bill. People already paying to have their garbage hauled away would not be affected.
“The reason to put it on the utility bill is because they are more likely to pay the utility,” said Mayor Jim Langfelder, who supported the measure. CWLP would collect the fee and then pay the waste haulers. The utility would add 25 to 50 cents to each bill to help cover the cost of collecting the money and disbursing it to the companies.
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The measure would only apply to the estimated 1,500 residents who don’t currently pay for garbage pickup, not those who are already customers but have fallen behind on payments.
The council Tuesday also discussed a proposal to raise the maximum rate waste haulers can charge Springfield residents from $11.25 for one garbage can plus recyclables to $15 and from $13.75 to $18 for two cans plus recyclables. The rate maximum would then automatically increase every year by the rate of inflation, with a cap at 3 percent. The initial jump reflects the inflation rate change since 2003, the last time the council raised the collection fee cap. Springfield’s current rates are believed to be among the lowest in the state.
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin said he would not support any increase in rates without a community recycling center.
Lake Area Disposal ran the only recycling facility in the city until deciding to close it in January. The company reopened it in May, but only to its customers. The company experienced plummeting prices for its recycled materials and couldn’t continue to provide the service to the public, said Davis.
Any new rate cap would affect the four private waste-hauling companies that serve Springfield — Lake Area, Illini Disposal, Waste Management and Republic Services.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 