Arvada City Council passes 3.5% trash hauling fee increase; opt-outs included

Meyers Pool project $10 million over budget; still on schedule

Arvada’s city council OK’s a new contract that includes the inflationary funding increase

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

As excitement for the new-andimproved Meyers Pool grows, the project has become impacted by a now-commonplace factor in the construction industry: in ation. To adjust for rising costs, the Arvada City Council approved an agreement with builder Saunders Construction to increase the city’s funding for the project by $10.5 million.

BY LILLIAN FUGLEI AND RYLEE DUNN LFUGLEI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM AND RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Arvada City Council has voted to increase trash hauling fees by 3.5%. is increase applies to all fees, including the minimum service fee, and is e ective Aug. 1. e increase passed 5-1 at the July 17 meeting, with John Marriott voting no and Marc Williams absent.

ough the increase passed, discussion before the vote focused on the negative impacts of the price change, especially the minimum service fee, which is charged to residents who opt out of the city’s program in favor of coordinating with their own trash hauler.

Prior to the vote, Marriott explained that he chose to vote no because he believes those who do not utilize the city’s service should

“What gets me into my no vote is the fee that people are paying to not do business with Republic Services,” Marriott said during the meeting. “To have that go up as a cost for in ation, there’s certainly no in ation in not doing business with somebody.” e City’s contract with Republic Services requires that anytime trash hauling prices increase, all fees increase by 3.5%, meaning that the minimum service fee must increase along with other service fees. e e project aims to replace the aging Meyers Pool with a new Olympic-size natatorium that will be operated by the Je erson County School District and Apex Parks and Recreation. Arvada has entered into an intergovernmental agreement with the other two organizations, and the city is providing primary funding for the project.

At the July 10 business meeting, in a unanimous 6-0 vote — Mayor Marc Williams was absent —council nalized a contract with Saunders for an amount not to exceed $39 million for Phase 2 of the Meyers Pool project.

On June 20, construction crews broke ground on the new facility, which will be constructed at the