The Delaware Public Works and Public Utilities Committee will discuss a possible suspension of its commercial, or dumpster, operations at its Tuesday meeting.
The recommendation is among four other changes for the city’s solid waste program, which are the introduction of a bulk item collection pilot program, adjustments for downtown refuse collection and the advancement of the design and construction process of the 27,000-square-foot refuse/recycling building.
Suspending commercial operations could increase rates for residential customers by an additional $1.33 per month — on top of the latest increase approved — in order to cover so-called legacy costs associated with the general refuse overhead and management of two closed landfills on Cherry Street and Curve Road.
City Council not only approved an 87-cent increase for residential rates but an average 13.8-percent decrease in dumpster rates for its 134 commercial customers at its last meeting.
Among them include 80 multi-family developments, of which some have representatives asking for further rate reductions or to allow them to opt out of the city’s service because lower prices are available in the private sector.
City officials have said allowing the apartments and condominiums to forego the city’s service could create a cycle where the commercial base gets smaller, while overhead costs remain the same.
“It’s just not practical to continue commercial collection for what fundamentally is 134 customers in the city versus all of the potential businesses there are,” Public Works Director Bill Ferrigno said at a Council meeting in February.
Council’s decision on the issue will be based on public input from existing commercial customers such as Ohio Wesleyan University, the Delaware Community Center YMCA and some of Delaware City School District’s buildings.
In other business, the committee will hear appeal cases from its safe walks program at 7 p.m.. Two separate cases, one on Diverston Way and the other at West Central Avenue, have a combined estimated repair cost of $4,430.
Additionally, the committee will have a hearing for a resident on Tudor Drive, whose vehicle discharged oil onto the road, according to city records. The resident was notified in December to clean the street and capture runoff before it entered the city’s storm water system and into local bodies of water regulated by local, state and federal levels of government.
The oil had not been cleaned off as of March 6 with the estimated cleaning cost at $1,650 as of November plus costs for any needed road repairs. The resident failed to attend a March 24 hearing, which found him responsible for the costs, while the city would handle the repairs.
The resident can appeal the decision at Tuesday’s meeting.
The committee will meet at City Hall, 1. S. Sandusky St., 6 p.m. in council chambers.
