LAWRENCE: Bulk item pickup fee considered

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Township Council is considering charging a fee for picking up “white goods” — appliances, furniture and other large items — that could raise as much as $400,000 per year, in an effort to generate revenue.
   The proposal, which calls for assessing a $55 fee for each household, was floated before Township Council at its Sept. 18 meeting by Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun during a discussion of the 2013 budget.
   Under the present system, residents contact township officials to make arrangements to pick up bulky items. There is no charge for the service.
   Mr. Krawczun said the idea to charge a fee for picking up bulk items had been discussed “internally.” Charging a fee for bulk pickup would be an alternative to charging a fee for trash collection, which means the cost for trash collection could be kept in the municipal budget, he said.
   Municipalities that charge residents for bulk pickup take varied approaches, Mr. Krawczun said. Some towns require residents to buy a sticker that is placed on each item to be picked up, while other towns charge a flat fee.
   The advantage of the flat fee System, Mr. Krawczun said, is the savings in administrative costs. There is no need to set up a system to service the program. Residents do not have to buy a sticker or pay for the pickup of bulk items, and there is no need to schedule the pickup.
   The disadvantage of the flat-fee system is that some residents will not necessarily use the service, he said.
   Under the sticker fee system, residents pay for what they discard. But the downside of the sticker fee program is that it could prolong the pickup process, he said. Residents have to go to a municipal building to buy a sticker.
   ”It requires additional enforcement,” Mr. Krawczun said of the sticker fee system. Residents might forget to buy a sticker, or they might not know they have to buy one. They might put out more items than they anticipated, which would not be picked up for lack of a sticker.
   The bulk items could remain in front of the house because the resident may be unable to carry them back to the house — particularly if it is a large item and someone helped the resident take it to the curb, Mr. Krawczun said. It becomes a matter of aesthetics.
   The other potential problem is dumping, he said. A resident may decide to load up a bulky item in the back of a car or truck and dump it, rather than purchase a sticker. It is illegal to dump items in a field or on the side of the road.
   Mr. Krawczun told the council that he had checked with three vendors to find out how much it would cost to pick up bulky items.