Property owners will have 60 days to pay the newly enacted bulk trash fee — not 30 days, as originally intended — under an amendment to the bulk waste collection fee ordinance that was introduced by Township C
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Property owners will have 60 days to pay the newly enacted bulk trash fee — not 30 days, as originally intended — under an amendment to the bulk waste collection fee ordinance that was introduced by Township Council Tuesday night.
A public hearing on the ordinance amendment and final action will be held at Township Council’s July 16 meeting.
The amendment allows property owners 60 days to pay the $25 bulk waste collection fee. There is an additional 10-day grace period before interest charges would be added to the unpaid bill, similar to the practice for sewer bills.
Councilman David Maffei suggested the 60-day deadline to pay the bulk waste collection fee because it is a new bill and there will likely be questions about it. The new bulk waste collection fee billing will be sent out separately from the property tax bill and the sewer bill — most likely in early August.
Township Council approved an ordinance in December 2012 that created a new fee for the collection of bulk waste that is assessed against all property owners whose trash is collected curbside. The fee is billed separately from the property tax bill.
The ordinance defines “bulk waste” as items that are too large to fit inside the Lawrence Township-issued blue trash carts. This includes washing machines and dryers, refrigerators and other metal products, as well as furniture and carpets.
The Lawrence Township Department of Public Works had picked up “white goods” — appliances — on an appointment basis. In justifying the fee, township officials said earlier that while the township collected money when it disposed of those items, there were also costs associated with it — such the cost to remove freon from a refrigerator.
Township officials also pointed out last year that the trash hauler’s contract calls for the company to pick up furniture and bulky items, but if that service were to be eliminated from the contract, then residents would have to find a way to dispose of the couches and other bulky items they want to discard.
During the discussion and public hearing on the bulk waste collection fee ordinance last year, many residents dismissed the suggestion that it would be difficult to dispose of furniture and other items. They pointed out that most stores will haul away the discarded appliances or furniture when new ones were delivered.
Some of the objectors suggested that the bulk waste collection fee ordinance was a replacement for an earlier proposal, which would have eliminated trash collection from the municipal budget and replaced it with a trash collection fee. That plan grew out of a referendum — which was defeated — to raise the municipal property tax rate by an additional 9 cents, over the 5-cent increase included in the 2012 municipal budget.
To stay within the state-mandated 2-percent cap on the municipal property tax rate increase, Township Council asked voters to approve the additional 9-cent increase instead of using up the budget surplus fund. But the voters rejected the referendum question and township officials used up most of the budget surplus fund to balance the 2012 spending plan.