Rising Sun adopts emergency trash-and-recycling ordinance after bid increases

The Town of Rising Sun on June 13 adopted ordinance 20-23-09 as an emergency measure to implement a new trash and recycling collection model after bids for the service rose sharply.

Town Administrator Bonenberger told commissioners the town’s initial bid for trash and recycling came back dramatically higher than projected: staff said an early projection of roughly $173,000 could have increased to about $513,000 when first bid, although later adjustments reduced the town’s net increase to roughly $62,000 under the current contract structure. To address equity and costs, the ordinance directs the town to reclaim previously distributed trash receptacles from properties where the legacy hauler provided them, issue new coordinated cans, and charge a per-unit fee so multi-unit rental properties pay per dwelling unit rather than all dumping into a single can.

Bonenberger described the measure as an effort to ensure that the cost of collection aligns with the number of users and to avoid having property tax revenues subsidize nonpaying households. "We're going to be collecting all the trash cans in the community by the previous owner...and we're going to distribute new trash cans," he said. The ordinance establishes a per-unit fee in the municipal fee schedule and allows the town to tailor charges for certain low-impact commercial users.

The commission approved the emergency ordinance by voice vote so the new trash-collection cycle could proceed without delay; the record does not contain an individual roll-call tally.