Dunmore\u2019s more than a decade long break on a trash pickup fee for residents is over as borough officials reinstated a $150 annual fee to help plug a growing operational deficit.<\/p>\n
A long-standing Host Municipality Fee agreement with Keystone Sanitary Landfill, which straddles Dunmore and Throop, exempts Dunmore from paying any \u201ctipping\u201d or disposal fee to the facility, but borough officials say they can no longer float related costs such as labor,\u00a0 garbage vehicle maintenance and fuel and Workers\u2019 Compensation insurance.<\/p>\n
The current $150 yearly fee, on the books since 2002 and suspended since 2014, was not waived by council in the budget passed in December and bills went out earlier this month.<\/p>\n
A post to Dunmore Borough-Bucktown Facebook page on July 16 reminding residents about the fee, was met with a firestorm of negative remarks questioning the need for it, particularly because the town doesn\u2019t pay to dump garbage.\u00a0 Additionally, some comments pointed to the impact the increase would have on senior citizen budgets and questioned why residents weren\u2019t informed immediately after the decision was made at the December meeting.<\/p>\n
In a letter to residents posted on the borough\u2019s website, officials explained that although they are exempt from the disposal fee, they do incur operational costs to the tune of more than $1.7 million for trash collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision was not made lightly but is needed to assist in the financial stability of theborough. Despite not having to pay landfill fees, there are many costs associated with refuse collection,\u201d they wrote in an open letter to residents. \u201cCosts include vehicles, vehicle maintenance, fuel, increased Workers\u2019 Compensation insurance rates and labor.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the fee no longer waived, the borough contracted Berkheimer Inc. to produce bills and collect the $150 per unit fee.<\/p>\n
During a budget meeting on Dec. 8,\u00a0 when then council president Katherine Oven asked if anyone was making a motion to waive the refuse fee for 2026, there was no response from council members and she the meeting would move forward, according to the meeting minutes. Councilman Patrick Loughney was absent from that meeting, the minutes show.<\/p>\n
Continuing financial challenges<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Dunmore has been forced to address the borough\u2019s financial challenges impacting residents.<\/p>\n
In March of 2023, a comprehensive study by the Pennsylvania Economy League (PEL) showed the borough operated at a loss for more than a decade after years of what they said was \u201chaphazard\u201d financial management, a lack of operational oversight and poor long-term planning.<\/p>\n
The research organization\u2019s report was especially critical of Dunmore\u2019s handling of the nearly $17.3 million it received from the 2016 sale of the Scranton Sewer Authority system to Pennsylvania American Water.<\/p>\n
Moving forward, PEL advised the borough to immediately begin to provide operational oversight and planning for financial management.<\/p>\n
According to year-end documents posted on the borough website, Dunmore\u2019s financial struggles continued from 2023 through 2025 as expenses consistently outpaced revenue, resulting in deficits of $564,585 in 2023,\u00a0 $1.2 million in 2024 and $532,306 in 2025.<\/p>\n
Borough officials say fee was unavoidable<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Janet Brier said council members are aware the fee might be burdensome for some residents, especially older ones.<\/p>\n
It was for that reason, she said, that after a discussion, members decided to revert to the $150 fee implemented in 2002. Although the costs have risen since that time, the fee remains at $150, she said.<\/p>\n
The borough estimates raising about $700,000 annually in revenue from the fee, which will not fund the entirety of trash pickup expenses, but will help, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike everyone else, our costs have gone up and we can no longer afford to have these costs absorbed by real estate taxes only,\u201d borough manager Greg Wolff said in an email.<\/p>\n
Wolff admitted residents could have been alerted to the cost earlier, but pointed out residents will be charged annually from July to July, similar to school real estate tax schedules.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe share their frustration and acknowledge public notification could have been better, but we have no other choice but to increase revenue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dunmore\u2019s more than a decade long break on a trash pickup fee for residents is over as borough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2136,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-250499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-dunmore","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}