The rocketing costs of trash collection have Summit Hill and Lansford collaborating on a creative way to counter the issue.

They will be looking at the possibility of forming a Garbage Authority and eventually collecting trash themselves without depending on an outside firm.

Summit Hill Borough Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to ask the Pennsylvania Department of Community Economic Development to perform a study and determine the feasibility of a joint trash collection service for the two boroughs.

It’s one of two joint ventures the two communities are interested in pursuing.

The other one is sharing police services. The borough said it will support Lansford’s efforts to have the DCED do a study to determine if the two towns could economically perform joint police coverage.

Both towns have been having difficulties filling part-time police positions. In Lansford, the matter is critical enough that sometimes the borough can’t fill shifts.

Lansford is also presently without a chief of police.

Council President David Wargo said that at one time Lansford had its own garbage truck and crew to collect trash in the borough.

At that time, there were more landfills for disposing the trash. As those dumps, as they were called, were closed by the state’s environmental officials, and collecting trash became more costly, the borough like many other towns began hiring outside contractors for the garbage collection.

Wargo said with trash collecting companies merging and being sold, and “meteoric rises” in the contract costs with these corporations, “Lansford is willing to join us with the DCED to look at collecting garbage.”

This would mean Lansford and Summit Hill would eventually have to create a joint Garbage Authority.

Two months ago, Summit Hill Borough Council approved a four-year garbage contract with Tamaqua Transfer at a cost of $2,368,512 or $592,128 per year. This is over $250,000 per year higher than what the borough had been paying.

Tamaqua Transfer was the only company to bid on trash collecting in Summit Hill. Since the contract was awarded, Tamaqua Transfer was sold to Casella Waste Systems of Vermont. Larry Wittig, CEO of Tamaqua Transfer, said Casella Waste Systems will honor the bid price that it gave the borough.

Likewise, Tamaqua Transfer was also the waste hauler for Lansford Borough. This year when bids were received for a new contract, only Tamaqua Transfer gave a price.

The borough approved a five-year contract totaling $3.67 million. The rate forced the council to increase residential rates from $60 per quarter to $115 per quarter.

Regarding joint police coverage, a DCED study had been done years ago but involved other Panther Valley communities.

According to the discussion at the Summit Hill Borough Council meeting, only Summit Hill and Lansford would be involved.

Coaldale’s police department was recently dissolved and that borough is working on receiving police coverage from their neighboring community of Tamaqua.