Elyria will increase sanitation rates for each of the next three years

ELYRIA — City sanitation rates will rise by 5 percent over each of the next three years after City Council voted Monday to implement the increase. The increases come after the city voted in November to keep its refuse pickup services in-house through the Elyria Sanitation Department. City officials have said the additional funding is needed to maintain the existing level of service, absorb rising costs and maintain the city's sanitation fleet. Council approved the proposal by a vote of 9-1, with only Council President Vic Stewart, D-at-Large, voting against it. In 2025, Elyrians who do not have a homestead exemption paid $33.38 per month for weekly trash pickup, while residents with a homestead exemption paid $24.87 per month. With the increases, residents without the exemption would pay $35.05 per month in 2026, $36.80 per month in 2027 and $38.64 per month in 2028. Residents with a homestead exemption would pay $26.11, $27.41 and $28.78 per month in those same three years. Homestead exemptions can be available to homeowners older than 65 who meet income requirements, the disabled, military veterans with disability and spouses of slain first responders. After Council voted last month to keep its Sanitation Department rather than consider privatization, Safety Service Director Chris Pyanowski made the proposal to increase rates to afford the increasing costs that the department has seen in recent years. Finance Director Ted Pileski has said previously that the 5 percent increases should put the department's finances back on track for the foreseeable future. The increase of 5 percent over the next three years was recommended by an independent study of Elyria's sanitation services, which was carried out by Rea Business Advisors earlier this year. The company also recommended the city consider privatization, which it projected would lower rates. According to the study, Elyria pays more for sanitation pickup than any of the other communities in Lorain County that it reviewed. Almost all of these other communities have privatized their sanitation services, except Oberlin. Compared to Elyria's 2025 rate of $33.38 a month, Avon Lake residents paid $26.88 per month, Avon residents paid $21.85 per month and Lorain residents paid $20.75 per month. The study said that Oberlin residents paid just $15 a month, but noted that this cost does not include all services. Throughout the discussion over the future of the Sanitation Department, almost every member of Council has argued that the service that both the city and residents receive from the department could not be matched by any private company. This included Councilmen Phil Tollett, D-at Large, and Kenny Oswald, D-4th Ward, both of whom said they had been contacted by myriad residents telling them that they were willing to pay a higher cost for the continuation of this excellent service. Stewart, on the other hand, voted against keeping sanitation services in-house last month and voted against implementing the rate increases on Monday. "I'm not going to support this just because of my position earlier in regards to the rate increases that are before us but then (also) the sanitation department," Stewart said on Monday. "I just feel that this is inevitably something that's going to continue to rise." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.