Feb 6, 2013 2 min read

Canonsburg officials are promising to use whatever means necessary to bag property owners who haven’t paid their garbage bills.

“The number of those who haven’t paid is relatively low, but the amount is astronomical,” said Terry Hazlett, borough manager.

According to Hazlett, about 60 of about 3,800 people in the borough owe on their garbage bills, and some of those “haven’t paid for years.” The delinquencies total about $80,000, he said.

The borough has issued warnings and fines with the hope of getting delinquents to pay up, but efforts have been fruitless.

In 2011, council amended its solid waste ordinance to bill landlords for garbage collection, rather than tenants.

The way the ordinance was written previously, either landlords or tenants were responsible for paying quarterly garbage collection bills. But most of the delinquent accounts were from renters, so council believed billing landlords would make it easier for the borough to collect the fees.

“When you get renters, they leave and they don’t leave a forwarding address, and we can’t find them,” Hazlett said. “If (a landlord) wants to build it into the rent, that’s fine. And I think it will make it easier for us.”

And like so many other communities facing the same problem, the borough has placed liens on properties whose owners are delinquent on their garbage bills.

“If they’re not selling their property, they don’t care about the liens,” Hazlett explained.

The borough manager said council is now looking for other ways to collect the money. “We’re determined,” Hazlett said.

Canonsburg is in its last year of a five-year contract with Waste Management to provide garbage/recycling service at a quarterly rate of $48.80.