ADRIAN — City residents can expect the annual cost of garbage pickup and related services to go up by $50 after the city’s current contract with Stevens Disposal expires next summer.

Engineering services director Matt Tomaszewski reported on the contract at the Sept. 8 city commission meeting. He said Stevens Disposal’s renewal proposal would increase the city’s cost by 5% per year for each of the next five years.

Instead of increasing the fee for residents every year, Tomaszewski proposed raising it by $50 in the first year of the new contract — from $240 to $290 — then keeping it at $290 for the next five years. That means the city would collect more than it spends at the beginning of the contract, and less than it spends at the end of the contract, with collections and spending averaging out over the course of five years.

Tomaszewski said it’s unlikely the city could find a lower price. Even at the end of five years of 5% increases, he said, Stevens’ proposed annual cost is still less than any other company quoted five years ago.

The contract covers:

• Weekly refuse collection.
• Every-other-week curbside recycling collection.
• Six yard waste collections per year. 
• Christmas tree collection.
• Curbside bulk trash collection every other year.
• Dumpsters for bulk trash at the city compost site, available for use by any city resident. 

The trash pickup fee is bundled into residents’ property tax bills. 

The contract for downtown dumpsters is handled separately, and is paid for via an assessment on downtown property owners.