Franklin city leaders have a trash dilemma.
The city has footed the bill for residents’ trash for as long as anyone can remember, but as costs increase and more homes are built, the expense is becoming a burden on the city’s budget.
For the past 10 years, the city has paid about $890,500 a year to Ray’s Trash Service on behalf of city residents for trash and recycling pick up.
But due to increased collection costs, the latest contract approved by the Franklin Board of Public Works and Safety and funded by the Franklin City Council will cost $1.7 million. That is $17.22 per month for automated weekly trash and biweekly recycling pickup, per household, times the 8,102 households in the city, plus $40,000 to collect trash at city buildings annually.
That contract would include pickup via automated trash trucks that Ray’s would purchase for use in Franklin. Both trash and recycling containers would be upgraded to 96-gallon rolling bins designed to be picked up and dumped into the trash trucks via attached mechanical arms.
With the city facing more than $800,000 in additional trash expenses, Franklin’s financial adviser is encouraging the council to explore options to fully pass on the cost to residents.
If asked to pay for their own trash service, residents would pay the city $17.22 a month, which would be tacked onto monthly sewer bills, said Sherry Phillips, the city’s utility billing manager. The city would then pay the trash fee to Ray’s on behalf of the residents.
If the council decides to pass on the costs to households, the city would continue to pay the $40,000 fee to collect trash at city buildings. The city would also continue to offer free leaf and limb pick-up, a service that is offered using city employees and vehicles and is not part of the Ray’s contract.
The discussion first came up a few months ago after Mayor Steve Barnett was notified there would be an increase in price for trash services once the city’s contract is up at the end of the year.
City officials discussed the matter and decided to request bids to see what other options are available. The city advertised and reached out to four area trash vendors, but Ray’s was the only vendor to submit a bid, said Mark Richards, Franklin’s city engineer.
Requesting bids still turned out to be a good idea, because requesting bids on both traditional and automated collection allowed the city to see the price difference between the two and get a better price for residents. The bid that included traditional trash collection was $18.50 a month per household due to the cost of employing an extra person to pick up the trash cans and dump them into the truck, Richards said.
The city pays for trash collection out of the General Fund, a general-purpose fund that pays for a wide variety of city expenses including employee wages, public safety, paving, sidewalks and more.
Next year, trash is $1.2 million of the city’s $18 million budget. News of the bid put the city more than $500,000 behind in the General Fund. If the council does not pass on the cost, most of the more than $600,000 surplus in next year’s budget would disappear, said Jeff Peters, the city’s financial consultant.
City leaders knew trash service would likely be bid at more than $1.2 million, but working with the council, Barnett cut the trash budget to make sure all city employees get a raise, he said.
“We are one of the only places left in the state that still pay for trash. I wanted to do that as long as we could,” Barnett said. “But when you have all of these things increase in price and you have employees needing a wage increase because of all this inflation, something has got to give.”
The city council did not make a decision about how trash will be funded at its Monday meeting, but is expected to discuss it again at its next meeting, at 6 p.m. on Dec. 6.
The council could keep things the same, or ask residents to pay for all or part of their trash costs. For example, Barnett suggested each household be asked to pay $10 a month with annual increases over the life of the five-year contract until they’re paying full price.
