Garbage rates in Lathrop are going up.

On Monday the Lathrop City Council formally approved a contracted rate increase for Republic Waste and Allied Services that will hike rates by 2.3 percent for the next year – amounting to a roughly $0.66 monthly increase for most residential customers.

The rates will actually increase $0.60 for customers with small garbage cans from $26.15 to $26.17, $0.65 for customers with medium garbage cans from $28.43 to $28.08 and $0.75 for customers with large garbage cans from $32.74 to $33.49.

Senior rates, which only increased $0.36 last year and did not increase the previous two years, will go up from $19.44 to $19.89 for small cans, $21.13 to $21.62 for medium cans and $24.31 to $24.87 for large cans.

The increase is based on the Consumer Price Index suggestion for the San Francisco Bay Area, and the annual increase per the contract is capped at four percent.

Not everybody was keen on basing the CPI off of the more-affluent Bay Area and the rates that are incurred by residents that live there.

Councilman Paul Akinjo noted that he didn’t think that it was fair for the standard that is applied to the Bay Area to also hold prevalent in Lathrop, but because of the city’s proximity to the area – the closest covered by the CPI – that is what was incorporated into the contract.

City Manager Steve Salvatore said that the rates increases were already approved when the council approved the 5-year contract with the Republic Waste and Allied Services, and that bringing the matter before the council is simply a way to effectuate it.

Mobile home rates will increase by an average of $0.55 per user – from $0.49 for small containers to $0.59 for large ones – and commercial rates will also go up.

The City of Lathrop receives a franchise fee of 7 percent from Allied Waste and a recycling fee of 3 percent of the gross revenue collected within 10 days following the completion of each calendar month.



To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.