Lansford Borough Council won’t be giving any residents or property owners exemptions from its garbage fee.

Everyone pays under proposed ordinance changes.

Council has been flooded with requests from residents seeking exonerations since the garbage fee nearly doubled earlier this year, Council President Bruce Markovich said.

Council approved a five-year, $3.67 million pact with Tamaqua Transfer, which increased the garbage rates from $60 a quarter to $115 a quarter or $460 for a full year.

The borough has received a litany of reasons why residents shouldn’t pay the new garbage fees, Markovich said last month. Some have said they don’t put out garbage, others say they share garbage with neighbors and others take their garbage to work.

The requests for exemptions keep coming, Markovich said Tuesday during a workshop meeting.

“We are getting inundated again with people that don’t want to pay their garbage bills, claim they don’t have to,” he said. “You would not believe the excuses we are getting here for not paying garbage. They don’t want to pay the new increase.”

The borough’s ordinance allows for exonerations, but doesn’t spell them out, and Markovich asked council to consider what exemptions they’d consider last month, and again on Tuesday.

Councilman Joseph Butrie said everyone has to pay school taxes, even if they don’t have children in school, and the borough’s garbage fee should be considered in the same vein.

Residents disagreed with the analogy, but agreed that people need to pay the fee. Joe Genits said he requested neighboring Summit Hill’s ordinance, as a family member selling a home there was told that everyone pays, regardless of occupancy.

Borough Secretary Ashley McLaughlin said that she spoke to borough Solicitor Bob Yurchak about whether Lansford could require everyone to pay with no exemptions.

Yurchak explained to her that the borough would need to change its ordinance to say that every property gets billed, she said.

Council agreed to have Yurchak to update the borough’s ordinance to state there would be no exemptions.

Police/public safety

Council did not discuss items under public safety due to the absence of Councilwoman Michele Bartek, who heads that committee, and Mayor Hugh Vrablic, who oversees police.

Council did get an update on police interviews from Civil Service Commission chairman, John Zym, who said applicants were tested Monday, and more will be this coming Monday.

The commission hopes to have a list of names for consideration as full time police hires for council’s June meeting, he said.

Markovich was asked about the status of a police chief search, and said that council is working on narrowing its list of candidates to interview. He did not say when interviews could happen.

Vrablic also requested an executive session of council on June 5 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss police, Markovich said.

At the end of the workshop, Markovich was called out of the meeting to talk to a borough police officer. He returned to say that Councilwoman Bartek was found unresponsive in her home, authorities forced entry to the home and she was on the way to the hospital.

Councilwoman Jennifer Staines asked to pause for a prayer or moment of silence, and everyone did pause and the meeting adjourned.