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Hollidaysburg dumps single-hauler proposal

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Hollidaysburg Borough will not become a single-trash-hauler community.

However, borough council members will still be tasked with devising a way to fund the Intermunicipal Relations Committee, which oversees the municipality’s recycling.

The vote against a single-hauler model was led by Joseph Dodson, the council member who has been most outspoken about his disapproval of a change to trash collection.

“I knew this was a bad idea from day one,” he said.

Council members have been mulling a change from the current trash collection system since at least March 2016, when they first discussed possibly switching from a model that lets residents choose their own haulers to a single hauler for all

residences.

Since then, the proposed change has received both strong criticism and support from community members, and those same comments continued Thursday night.

Councilwoman Stephanie Wertz explained Thursday how community opinions factored into her vote.

“I’ve said all along what the majority of people wanted in my ward, I would go along with,” Wertz said, saying she randomly called residents living in Ward 6, and all were opposed to single-hauler collection. “The majority of them … want to keep what they have.”

Still, a majority of council members chose to let monetary figures drive their decisions, when they voted months ago to request single-hauler bids from area haulers.

That’s because single-hauler proponents often have argued that a change would lead to lower pickup prices and a cost savings for customers.

“You can not make an informed decision if you do not have the information,” council President Joseph Pompa said.

The average cost of trash and recyclable collection under the current, multi-hauler system is $23.75 per month, officials have said.

Three companies offered single-hauler bids, and the lowest came from Hollenbaugh’s Trash & Recycling LLC of Huntingdon at $13.25 per month per customer for a six-year period beginning in 2018, figures show.

That is only for trash collection. Council members hoped to contract recyclable collection to Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority at an additional cost of $4.95 per month.

That means residents would have paid about $18.20 per month for both services. An additional fee to aid the financially struggling IRC also was discussed.

All told, the total cost of single-hauler collection would have been closer to $20 per month per residence, Wertz said. That number was too close to the current average cost to warrant a change, leaders agreed.

That is especially true because both collection companies under the single-hauler bid are based outside of the borough and Blair County, meaning “hundreds of thousands of dollars” would be moved out of the local economy, Wertz said.

“There is no way you can tell people this is not going to affect them,” she said, referring to local residents and business leaders.

Council members in attendance voted unanimously to dismiss single-hauler bids in favor of the current multi-hauler system. Councilman Jeffrey Ketner was absent, but he had said multiple times that he too would oppose a change to single-hauler collection.

Hollidaysburg is one of four Blair County municipalities where community members are required to recycle by order of an unfunded state mandate. The IRC oversees recycling in those communities.

In recent years, grant funding for the IRC has dwindled, leading to financial issues. The fee added to the proposed single-hauler contract was expected to offer some relief, but, after Thursday’s vote, that is no longer an option.

“We still have to fund the IRC,” Pompa said, making that clear to those who attended the meeting.

This year, council members agreed to give the IRC $25,000, but Pompa said that is not enough to meet the committee’s needs.

Councilmen Patrick Plummer and Sean Burke asked to discuss the issue at next month’s meeting. A new tax or fee was previously mentioned.

Mirror Staff Writer Sean Sauro is at 946-7535.

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