EDITOR'S NOTE: We had an error in this story and published a correction in the next week's newspaper. This story has been corrected.
The City of Newcastle will be paying more for solid waste disposal in polycarts because of an increase in the cost Republic Services is experiencing.
Newcastle City Council members, during their September 25 special meeting, approved a 4.85% increase in the fees the City is being charged to recover cost of operations by the solid waste collection company. A contract between the City of Newcastle and Republic Services calls for rates to be either increased or decreased depending on the fluctuations in the Consumer Price Index for water, sewer and trash.
The new rates were effective October 1.
In a letter from Republic Services’ manager of Municipal Services, Crystal Bennett, to City Manager Kevin Self, Bennett thanked the City for the opportunity to manage Newcastle’s municipal solid waste needs.
“We take pride in the quality of service we offer to our valued customers,” Bennett wrote. “Our objective is to provide you with the kind of service that has made us a premiere provider of solid waste disposal services.”
New residential rates charged to the City of Newcastle now in effect for weekly service are the following: one polycart, $11.67; two polycarts, $23; three polycarts, $34.34; four polycarts, $45.67. Each additional polycart after four would be $11.67 each. Residential customers are charged $13.50 for each polycart.
City Manager Kevin Self said the City staff is currently studying the rates to ensure the City is paying for its expenses and overhead to bill residential customers. The City Council may take a look at the rates at a later time.
In a related development, the City Council was informed of a billing error by Republic Services for the time period of October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2022. According to a letter from Republic Services Business Finance Manager Sidonie Quick, new rates went into effect in October 2022, and those rates were outlined in a letter to the City, but the rates were not updated in the data base used by Allied Waste Services, a division of Republic Services used for accounts payable.
Because of the error, the City was not billed the proper rates from October 1, 2022 through September 8, 2023. A monthly billing statement sent to the City shows a total of $36,775.68 which did not get billed properly to the City.
In the letter to the City, Republic Services gave the City the option to pay in full or over the next three months.
Mayor Karl Nail said the Council agreed that, regardless of the error, the City is contractually obligated to pay Republic Services for the services they have provided.
