Bloomington considers charge for bulky waste pickup

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) - Bloomington officials have proposed charging a fee to pick up residents' discarded sofas and tree branches.

City administrators recommend the city council adopt a $50 charge for each pile of bulky waste picked up in front-end loader buckets.

The council will meet Monday to hear the proposal from Assistant City Manager Steve Rasmussen. He tells The (Bloomington) Pantagraph (http://bit.ly/1AQZXFv ) the fee is "hard to swallow" but the solid waste program must be made solvent.

The city offers the first bucket load free; additional loads are $25 apiece. For decades, the city offered free weekly bulk pickup. As long ago as the 1980s, city officials complained remodeling contractors were taking advantage and putting commercial reconstruction waste on residential curbsides.

If approved, the fee would take effect April 1.

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Information from: The Pantagraph, http://www.pantagraph.com