Garbage bill glitch corrected
Uniontown’s garbage collection contractor said it has corrected a computer glitch that mistakenly added administrative fees to the first bills it sent to city homeowners since becoming the garbage contractor.
The $2.95 fee that was in the bills Veolia Environmental Services of German Township mailed out in July was not included in its contract with the city and was quickly brought to the attention of the company and the city. “It was murder for us on the phone calls,” said Oliver Lint, site manager of Veolia’s Chestnut Valley Landfill on Route 21.
Mayor Ed Fike said City Hall also was inundated with calls about the fee.
“It was a error, definitely,” Fike said.
The city signed Veolia to a three-year contact that charges homeowners $11.99 a month for garbage collection and 75 cents a month for collecting recyclable materials throughout the term of the contract. Goodwill Industries of Fayette County collects the recyclables for Veolia.
For a single-family home, Veolia’s quarterly bills should come to $38.22, but the first round of bills included a $2.95 administration fee, which bumped the total amount due to $41.17.
Lint said contracts Veolia has with some other municipalities allows it to assess the administrative fee to cover the cost of mailing invoices, but its contract with the city does not permit that fee.
City homeowners who called Veolia about the fee were told to subtract it from their bills and remit the balance, and those who paid it will receive credit for that amount on their next bill, which will come in October, Lint said.
He said customers can pay their bills online. Payments can be made through the company’s Web site, www.veoliaes-sw.com.
Council agreed to hire Veolia in June and laid off its 10-man sanitation department to save money.
A deficit of almost $23,000 was projected in the department’s $877,254 budget this year.
The city charged residents $12 a month for garbage collection and paid Goodwill $3,600 a month to collect recyclables
Veolia’s contract includes paying the city a franchise fee of $8,000 a month.
The city and the sanitation workers’ union are negotiation to settle a grievance filed by the union. The contract between the city and union wasn’t set to expire until Dec. 31, 2009.
Fike said two of the sanitation workers are working in a different department and Veolia hired one.
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