LEBANON, Tenn. (WKRN) — The cost of trash has gone up in Lebanon.

For a long time, the city has provided sanitation services without a fee. However, because of growth, the mayor tells News 2 it's no longer sustainable without charging residents. 

We often hear “Wilson County is growing,” and Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell said one way to measure that is through trash. The sanitation department picks up 18,000 bins a week.

“Just five years ago, it was about 16,500, so more cans equal more sanitation,” Bell said.

And due to rising landfill fees, that means the sanitation budget has to increase. Back in 2017, Mayor Bell said the sanitation budget was $1.5 million. Fast forward to this year, it's projected to cost almost $3.9 million.

“The cost of those fees isn’t going down. We can’t control that, and it's affecting our ability to hire police officers, firefighters, and other personnel," Bell said.

Mayor Bell said the high cost of trash is causing a domino effect. The money for sanitation comes out of the general fund, which is the same money that is used for city services like fire and police.

“It’s just not working anymore, the price has gone up too much," Bell said.

So earlier this month, Mayor Bell proposed a sanitation fee of $20 a month for residents and $40 for commercial businesses that use the sanitation service.

“The sanitation department can be self-funded, and then that opens up our ability to fund other departments that we also need, like fire and police," Bell said.

On the first reading, it passed the city council four to two.

"This is a topic of discussion around town. This is a service that we provided through the years that really didn’t have a fee. This is a change of way we are doing business," Bell said.

If the proposal passes the soonest the fees would go into effect is July 1st.

With the proposed plan, the city will offer recycling pickup at no cost.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/lebanon-city-council-voting-on-sanitation-fee/