WARDEN – The Warden City Council unanimously passed a garbage rate increase beginning Sept. 1.  

“With our contract with Consolidated Disposal Service, who does our sanitation services in the community,” City Admin Kriss Shuler said. “In our contract, we have a biannual adjustment for cost of living, so that cost of living over the two years is 4.8% and so what that is is they increase our cost, and then we pass that on to our consumers of our community, which we'll talk about next, an ordinance change.”  

The council both approved the contract for another two years with Consolidated Disposal Services and passed a resolution raising the fees.  

“Their costs go up just like our costs go up,” Shuler said. “That's why we're supposed to raise our costs. Because we're a business, we have to pay for our costs and our labor and our parts and our supplies and our insurance and our tax that we pay to the state.”  

For a single-family residence, the current price is $22.75 but will be raised to $23.85. For senior citizens who are the head of household, the price is $21.50 and will go up to $22.50. Any additional garbage per week or bundle will go up from $4.30 to $4.50. 

Council members also discussed the potential of bringing in the yard waste bin. 

“'We've discussed that process. It's a universal charge when you bring that in,” Shuler said. “So, everybody would be required to have that bin, and would be charged for that bin, and that's one of the reasons we probably have it might be a little more expensive than the community wants.”  

The council said they would like to reach out to the company to see what the charge would be and if they could potentially make a seasonal service. There was no further action taken regarding the yard waste bin.  

The council also asked if there were alternative options outside of Consolidated Disposal Services. Shuler explained there is, however as of now, she believes Consolidated is the best option for the city. She said a further discussion could happen if the council was interested, though.