CITY OKS NEW TRASH CONTRACT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - A newly approved trash collection contract will provide Palmdale residents with a two-year price freeze on their trash collection bills and reduce rates for business customers.

The Palmdale City Council took two actions Monday night regarding trash collection, approving a new franchise agreement and authorizing a host fee of $1.50 per ton for trash going into the landfill. Both were approved unanimously.

City officials and representatives of Waste Management said the previous agreement, from 1993, had vague language in some areas that caused misunderstandings and conflicts.

``There are some ambiguities in that contract,'' said Assistant City Manager Steve Williams. ``This is a nicer, cleaner agreement.''

For the city, the new contract is intended to provide a guarantee that there will be a place for Palmdale's trash, though officials said it is not related to a controversy over the city of Los Angeles considering disposing of some of its waste at Antelope Valley landfills.

The new contract gives Palmdale waste priority over waste from other communities if disposal capacity becomes limited. In addition, Waste Management must dispose of Palmdale's waste at another facility at no additional cost if the Palmdale landfill's capacity is exhausted.

For residents, the contract means two main changes - a two-year price freeze, keeping the current rate of $18.40 a month in effect until July 1, 2008, and a new charge of $10 a month for each additional 96-gallon trash bin beyond the first one. Additional recycling bins will be provided at no charge.

The two-year rate freeze is expected to save residents a total of $1 million, Williams said.

Trash fees for businesses will be reduced 3 percent and 29 percent, depending on the size of containers and frequency of pickup.

The proposed franchise contract also calls for Waste Management to pay $76,000 a year to support the city's outreach and administration costs for meeting state recycling goals and the addition of a vehicle and two workers to pick up litter. Other changes include allowing Waste Management to charge late fees not to exceed 2 percent per month and authorizing a $50 charge for commercial customers who have repeated spillage over their bins.

One contract provision, an increase in rental fees for 3-yard bins not returned in a timely manner, was pulled for further negotiations at the request of Councilman Jim Root. Root felt the new charge was excessive.

Under the current contract, there is an $84 charge for delivery, pickup and one-week rental of the 3-yard bins. After the first week, Waste Management charges $27.65 for each additional week.

The proposal called for allowing Waste Management to charge $10 a day after the first week for the bin rentals.

In a separate but related matter, the City Council approved a host fee of $1.50 per ton for waste being delivered to a section of the landfill called Landfill One. Once that section is filled, in about two years, the fee will go to $2 a ton for trash going to Landfill Two, which is expected to have 13 years of capacity.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com