Quick Take:
Palmyra Borough Council voted 4-2 to accept a more expensive refuse and recycling bid that will provide carts to residences.
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Palmyra Borough Council voted 4-2 to approve a more expensive refuse and recycling contract to Casella Mid-Atlantic — which will provide residents with 96-gallon carts — during its Sept. 10 meeting.
Councilman Marcus Riddell was absent, and Matthew Andrews and Jane Quairoli voted nay. They did not share their reasoning for their votes, but council had discussed worries about the higher price tag and the discontinuation of the single-bag option.
Continuing with the current program where residents provide their own trash cans would have cost residents around $103 per quarter, while the new option will cost them about $112 per quarter. This will be a $23 increase from the 2024 quarterly fee.
Councilman Anthony Catalani, who voted for the contractor-provided cart option, said they might help with trash issues around the borough.
“My alley is one of the many alleys that has that happening. There’s trash everywhere,” Catalani said. “If they are providing these recycling and trash containers, that would fix a lot of the problems, perhaps. I think we go in a positive direction that would help our alleys looking somewhat decent then.”
Borough manager Roger Powl said 61 residences, including Quairoli’s, used the single-bag option, which will no longer be available.
“It was just convenient for those of us who don’t generate a lot of trash,” Quairoli said before the vote.
Powl said the company will have to deliver the new 96-gallon carts to residences, and the contract will start at the beginning of 2025.
There are still questions that need to be answered, he said, and the borough will begin hashing those out now that the bid has been approved.
Powl said the new contract is aligned with where the trash industry is heading.
“They want to have one operator in one truck with hydraulic arms that will grab the can and tip it in there,” he said. “It should make the trash collection program a little more efficient.”
In other business:
- Powl said the Caring Cupboard preliminary/final land development plan will be presented at the next planning commission meeting on Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. It was meant to be presented during an August meeting but stalled because of revisions.
- Assistant borough manager Brenda Pera said residents will soon be able to submit code enforcement complaints online. She said more information will be available in the borough newsletter.
Palmyra Borough Council will meet next at 325 S. Railroad St. on Sept. 24 at 7 p.m.
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