Sitka votes Tuesday on a $3,300-a-month roll-off container rate

Sitka residents and businesses hauling large waste loads could pay under a new code-backed rate structure for roll-off containers, and the ordinance setting it returns to the City and Borough Assembly on Tuesday. That rate would be $3,300.28 a month for a 15-yard container, 3,030 gallons, plus $2,640.22 per extra pickup, effective Nov. 1.

Ordinance 26-21 amends Title 15 of the Sitka General Code by amending Chapter 15.15, "Solid Waste Treatment and Refuse Collection." The Assembly gave the ordinance its first reading at its Sept. 8 meeting. It passed 7-0. It now appears on the Sept. 22 Assembly agenda under unfinished business, meaning the Assembly is returning to it for further action. A draft administrative policy for roll-off service is attached to the measure, along with a memo on the municipal solid waste roll-off rate.

Municipal Administrator John Leach introduced the ordinance, and the meeting record from the Sept. 8 session says the city had no code-based rate for roll-off containers. That record also says the ordinance creates distinct program categories for commercial use, public-good use, and neighborhood cost-share use. Schools, grocery stores and government sites approved as public-good users would pay only the $0.1713-per-pound disposal charge; under cost-share, 40 to 80 households would drop curbside pickup to share one container, billed to one account holder.

The city contracts Alaska Waste - Sitka, LLC to run garbage collection, the transfer station and the recycling center, according to the city's solid waste page.

The Assembly meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Assembly Chambers at 330 Harbor Drive. The agenda provides for public testimony on any item, limited to three minutes per person.