Alhambra : Garbage Rates to Go Up

Garbage collection rates will continue to go up for residents of single-family homes, the City Council decided Monday night.

Such customers will continue to absorb semiannual rate increases that the city must pay Athens Disposal until subsidies for single-family rates are phased out, council members agreed.

Under the city’s contract with Athens Disposal, the company receives automatic rate increases, based on the Consumer Price Index, every June and December. These increases have averaged 5% a year, said Dennis Danner, the city’s administrative services director.

In the past, rates charged to residents of multifamily complexes have been higher than those in other San Gabriel Valley communities in order to subsidize single-family rates, Danner said.

But in 1985, the city decided to phase out the subsidy by passing on fee increases only to single-family customers. That year, a whopping 21% increase, prompted by the closure of the Operating Industries landfill in Monterey Park, was shouldered entirely by single-family residents.

Even so, rates for multifamily dwellers are still about 31% higher than those in nearby communities, according to a report Danner submitted to the council.