TUSTIN : Council Set to OK Lower Trash Rates

Residents and businesses have accumulated less garbage than expected and will soon be rewarded with lower trash rates.

The City Council on Monday is expected to approve a new rate for the 1992-93 fiscal year of $10.91 a month for residents and $11.33 for businesses--both rates 82 cents less per month than what is now charged.

The decrease will put Tustin among Orange County cities with the lowest residential trash rates. Westminster has the lowest, with a $4 monthly rate, followed by Laguna Beach at $8.25 a month. Residents of unincorporated parts of the county have the highest monthly rate at $13.76.

“One reason (the rate) is not going up is that the county is . . . holding fast on landfill fees,” said Finance Director Ronald A. Nault. He said landfill fees will remain at about $28 per ton.

But the biggest money-saver for residents and business owners turned out to be of their own thrift. According to city documents, the city’s trash hauler, Great Western Reclamation, overcharged the city for its services in the last year because charges were based on collection of an estimated 81 pounds of garbage per week from each residential unit. But in fiscal 1991, the hauler only collected 64.7 pounds of trash a week from each residential unit.

Even with the rate reductions, the city will receive a refund of $109,871 from Great Western Reclamation. Nault said will recommend to the council that the money be deposited into a trust account to be used to offset rate increases in coming years.