LATHROP – Garbage rates are going up.

It’ll still take the approval of the Lathrop City Council, but city staff is recommending that Allied Waste Corporation be granted a five-year extension to the exclusive sanitation contract that has been in place since 2004.

According to the staff report, rates would increase b6=y 36 cents a household and then be readjusted annually based on the consumer price index – increasing the monthly garbage bill for a family with a medium sized garbage can $27.31-a-month to $28.43-a-month.

Unlike Manteca, which operates its own refuse collection service, Lathrop has provided the service on a contracted basis to residents ever since the city incorporated.

The rate increases would average out to an addition $1.14-a-month for standard residential customers and $0.95-a-month for seniors. That number would fall to a $0.97 increase for standard mobile home purchasers and down to $0.82 for senior mobile residents.  The $0.36 a month across-the-board increase includes a curbside e-waste program as well as Sharps and battery pickup. Allied will also provide a $750 annual scholarship to River Islands Technology Academy.

If approved by the Lathrop City Council on Tuesday, June 3, the rates would go into effect July 1.

Agreeing to a contract doesn’t cost the City of Lathrop any money. Instead they get a 7 percent franchise fee and a 3 percent California trash hauler fee of the total commercial and residential revenues collected. That money is then used to offset costs associated with recycling and waste removal and the improvement of city streets and infrastructure.

The consumer price index increase for the 12-month period that ended on April 1 was at 2.78 percent. That number is based off of the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose areas as published by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to the staff report, Allied has provided Lathrop with “excellent low cost service” since signing its first contract in 2004 and that “staff believes the negotiated terms of the amendment include very competitive rates; provide services that greatly benefit the community at a proven low cost of service.”