Waste collection changes coming to High Springs

Residents in the city of High Springs will soon see a change in the way their household garbage is picked up.  That comes after commissioners approved changes to its residential garbage contract Thursday that will allow Suburban Waste Services (SWS) to switch from manual waste removal to a more automated residential waste removal.

After making the original presentation on April 7, there were some revisions made to the agreement and High Springs City Attorney Tom DePeter presented the modifications to the city commission.

The new program will commence on Aug. 1, by which time each residence receiving garbage pickup will be supplied with a 96-gallon bin for household waste and a yard debris cart.

Each 96-gallon trash bin and yard debris cart will be collected once per week.

Bulk residential waste, white goods, such as appliances, or other items that do not fit into the cart or garbage bin will be collected just twice monthly.

Other modifications made to the agreement allow for more flexibility in adjusting rates in future years and create an automatic renewal process at the end of the initial four-year contract period.

Within the new modifications to the contract, SWS proposed no rate increases between the period of May 1, 2011 and April 30, 2012.

The contractor may however, for future annual periods, request a rate adjustment period to reflect up to 70 percent of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the preceding 12-month period.

DePeter made it clear that no CPI increase would be requested or allowed for the upcoming year.