Westfield residents facing significant trash fee increase

WESTFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) — Westfield city councilors have voted to amend their budget to bring yearly trash prices for residents up significantly and many in the Whip City are not pleased. The annual trash collection prices in Westfield went from $85 a year to $260 overnight and, although that’s a huge increase, we’re told it’s the first time prices have gone up in decades.

We spoke with Westfield City Council President John Beltrandi and he told us that the ordinance they voted to amend Thursday is over 30 years old and they had no choice but to increase the fee since trash collection prices keep going up. “If you can imagine anything 30 years ago that hasn’t changed in that amount of time, well, the trash fees have been the same. It’s a lot more money to pick up, to dispose of it, and we just haven’t kept up with it, so we’ve been running in a deficit for a number of years and we just can’t do it anymore and the increase to $260 is just enough to break even and that may be a problem in the future,” he explained.

However, residents we spoke with are not pleased. Kevin McNair said with everything else increasing like food, travel, and other life expenses, it’s frustrating to see yet another increase on the horizon. “I mean I get it. Everybody’s got their reasoning but, you know, they’ve raised the valuations of properties, so we’re paying more in taxes and we’re just getting less, so the reality is everybody’s struggling to pay their bills, so any increase you see is going to make them unhappy,” he added.

We’re told those on a fixed income or having difficulty paying their bills will have a chance to apply for some assistance when it comes to these trash fees. Beltrandi told us that information will be available to the public in the coming days.

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