Changes to garbage collection postponed in Tarentum

Big changes to Tarentum’s garbage service that were expected in April have been pushed back to mid-summer.

Starting then, residents no longer will have unlimited collection.

Waste Management will switch to cart service with each property given one 96-gallon container. Residents will have the opportunity to buy additional containers for $100 each.

Residents will pay the same amount for garbage collection, about $25 a month.

“We didn’t have much of a choice,” Borough Manager Dwight Boddorf said. “We put out bids for a new garbage hauler, but we got zero.

“We’re doing all we can to keep costs down and keep quality service.”

Council was notified in October that Waste Management was not able to extend the borough’s current contract that provides unlimited service because of a lack of drivers.

Erika Deyarmin, public affairs coordinator for Waste Management, said the automated collection requires only one person on each truck.

The borough pays about $480,000 a year for garbage hauling. It amounts to about 12% of the budget.

Municipalities across the Alle-Kiski Valley are experiencing the same challenge, Boddorf said.

O’Hara and Indiana Township residents pay about $30 a month for similar automated cart service, he said.

Councilman Ray Kerr said residents will be informed of changes in coming weeks. He recently met with Waste Management to forward concerns from residents.

“We threw every question at them,” he said. “There aren’t answers to all of them.”

Some residents have voiced concern over the size of the container, but Kerr said they will have the chance to trade their large-capacity bin for a smaller one.

A 96-gallon container can hold up to seven, 13-gallon trash bags, Deyarmin said. Residents also will be able to get rid of one bulk item per month.

In early March, flyers and bill inserts with information will be mailed to residents.

Boddorf said there are some spaces in the borough where the Waste Management driver still will be required to get out of the truck to dump the container.

“There will be growing pains, but Waste Management is a big company, and they operate in many towns that all have narrow alleys like here,” Boddorf said.

Items left outside the container will not be collected.

“On the plus side, all the garbage won’t be blowing around like it does now,” Council President Scott Dadowski said.