West Fargo Raises Monthly Residential Garbage Pick-Up Rate
The new rate of $17.50 comes after city's sanitation department operated on a deficit
WEST FARGO, N.D. — Five years ago, the West Fargo City Commission raised the residential garbage pickup fee to $13 per month.
But as more people moved to West Fargo, the new rate could not help the city’s sanitation department make ends meet.
“Our sanitation rates have not been carrying our entire costs of our department to operate it. Being a utility fund, we have to bring in enough revenues to match what our expenses are, so we knew we had to rework our entire rate structure,” said Chris Brungardt, the Public Works Director for the City of West Fargo.
Dividing the cost to pick up all the garbage in the city by the number of residential accounts, the department settled on a new residential pick up rate of $17.50 per month, a price jump that the City Commission swiftly approved.
“The decision was pretty simple. The revenues have to cover the expenditures in our sanitation department, and for the last few years, they’ve been running on a deficit and we needed to adjust the rates accordingly,” said City Commissioner Eric Gjerdevig.
Even though the fee jumps up $4.50 per month, Brungardt says the extra funding is necessary for the sanitation department to serve more citizens as the city continues to grow.
“If you replace the windows on your house, we’ll take it. You just put it on the curb, we’ll take it. Other communities don’t have that service, but we also offer curbside recycling service in that fee,” said Brungardt.
Brungardt says the main goal of the price increase is to ensure the sanitation department is able to do more to help the city.
“We got to make sure we’re able to charge a price that matches our cost of service. We’re not making any extra money on this. We’re just trying to pay for what it costs, to make and equal for every user of our system,” Brungardt said.
The $17.50 fee only applies to home owners.
Brungardt said that it could cost the sanitation department $2.4 million to pick up the garbage this year.
