VILLA PARK : Longer City Trash Pact Includes Fee Hike

City residents will soon be paying $1.90 a month more in trash-collection fees.

To prevent an even higher increase to homeowners, the City Council on Tuesday approved a 15-year extension to its existing five-year contract with Taormina Industries Inc., the city’s trash hauler.

The higher charge to residents takes effect Saturday and stems from a move by Orange County to raise by 54% the fees it charges for landfill use. Trash haulers are generally passing on that increased cost.

“There’s no easy way to tell residents that we have a price increase coming,” Councilman Barry Denes said.

The city could reduce the increase, he said, if it agreed to a longer contract with Taormina. He said the company had offered to reduce monthly rates and make a onetime $20,000 contribution to the city treasury in exchange for a longer contract.

Denes noted that trash haulers get a monetary value, such as better rates for loans, by having extended contracts with the cities they serve. Villa Park had resisted contracts longer than five years, he said, but many other Orange County cities have 10- or 15-year contracts.

City residents now pay $13.70 a month for trash pickup. Starting next week, the basic rate will be $15.60. If the council had not agreed to a longer contract with Taormina, the rate would have been $16.88 a month.

The longer contract, approved by a unanimous vote of the council, accompanies new guidelines for recycling. Residents will be asked to keep “green waste,” such as tree and lawn clippings, in a separate container.

That material will then be recycled into fertilizers, and the city will get state credit for reducing amounts sent to landfills.