The BPU approved the Solid Waste Division’s budget Monday with an overall increase in customer rates for 2023. To help offset the rate increase, the BPU is also increasing the recycling credit for residential customers who recycle at least once per month. Pictured are BPU board members at Monday’s meeting. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities on Monday approved a rate increase next year for customers under the Solid Waste Division.

David Leathers, general manager, explained that the BPU’s Solid Waste Division had a “very difficult” year, with most of the division’s line item expenses rising, including some increases Leathers described as “significant.”

“If we look at labor, landfill tipping fees, repair and maintenance of vehicles, fuel expenses, you go down that whole line for solid waste, and the division is going to end with a net loss this year,” he said.

As a result of the increase in expenses for the Solid Waste Division, the BPU’s solid waste removal will increase for customers in 2023. The BPU will charge residential customers an additional $1.50 per month to offset the increase in the division’s expenses.

While the BPU’s solid waste removal rate will increase for customers in 2023, the BPU is also increasing the recycling credit incentive for residential customers.

“We want to continue to give financial credit as an incentive for people to recycle, so we thought it was a time to bump that up a little bit,” Leathers said. “If you recycle once a billing period as a residential customer, the overall rate goes up $1 per month, so we felt that was manageable.”

Mayor Eddie Sundquist also commented on the rate changes for the BPU’s Solid Waste Division. He explained that any individual who recycles at least once per month will be entitled to a recycling credit.

“We’re really looking at, as long as you recycle, only about a dollar increase per month in your solid waste fee, he said.

Sundquist said the BPU’s solid waste removal fees are “still cheaper” than the cost of paying for solid waste removal from private companies. He believes the rate increase is modest compared to the increase in expenses that the BPU’s Solid Waste Division has had to adjust to.

“This is to account for the cost of labor, the cost of where we transport the waste, all those items have seen some increased cost,” he said. “Overall, we think that is a very minimal increase for the actual cost that we pay in order to remove solid waste.”