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Potsdam ups fee 20% for village trash pickup on 3-1 vote

Posted 6/18/19

BY CRAIG FREILICH North Country This Week POTSDAM – The village Board of Trustees has approved a 20% increase in the price of trash bags for pickup by Casella Resource Solutions for village …

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Potsdam ups fee 20% for village trash pickup on 3-1 vote

Posted

BY CRAIG FREILICH
North Country This Week

POTSDAM – The village Board of Trustees has approved a 20% increase in the price of trash bags for pickup by Casella Resource Solutions for village residents.

The vote at Monday’s meeting was not unanimous. Trustees Steve Warr and Abby Lee and Mayor Ron Tischler voted yes, but Trustee Cindy Goliber voted no. Trustee Maggie McKenna was not present.

“We’re going for 20%. They’re costs are up 50%,” said Warr, explaining Casella’s reason for activating a clause in their current contract allowing an increase if their expenses got much higher.

“Twenty percent is too much,” said Goliber. She would have preferred it “if they had come before and did it in increments,” she said.

Ryan Deuel of Pleasant Street cited figures indicating huge profits for the Casella organization’s nationwide operations in opposing the increase for the local Casella operations.

He said the vote by the board was presented “as if it had been set in stone and we don’t have a voice, but you do have a voice” as he urged them to defeat the resolution.

He cited comments by board members he said implied “Casella is just trying to keep its lights on and the doors open, but I think there are people in the village that are trying to keep the lights on, too.”

He said Casella’s sales company-wide last year were over $660 million, a 10% increase over the previous year, and its profit margin in 2018 was over 20% higher than the year before.

But Trustee Warr noted that the Casella operation in Potsdam was in the North Country, not an urban area of concentrated population, and they have been the only company in the area that would take on Potsdam’s residential trash pickup job. “They’re the only one big enough to handle it,” he said.

The price had been $1.60 each for 15 gallon bags and $3.20 each for 30-gallon bags. That will go up to $1.95 per 15-gallon bag and $3.90 per 30-gallon bag. They are to be sold in packages of 10 15-gallon bags or five 30-gallon bags at $19.50 per package, up from $16 per package, at the village offices, from the village web site, and at the Casella offices on outer Maple Street and in West Parishville, at no profit. They are also sold at the IGA on Elm Street, the two Kinney Drugs stores at 200 Market St, and 48 Maple St., Evans & White Hardware at 1 Maple St., and the Save A Lot supermarket at 200 Market St.

There had been some confusion over when the new prices would go into effect. It has been reported that some outlets had begun charging the higher price before the resolution was passed at Tuesday’s meeting. The new price will go into effect on July 1, and anyone who was charged the higher price can return to where they bought them and ask for a refund, the board said.

Trustee Abby Lee said the board will have to take a look at the system to see what alternatives there might be to the service when Casella’s current contract expires in 2021.

See our earlier story here.