Bloomington's solid waste fund will have a $2 million deficit at the end of the fiscal year unless the city council takes action. (Adam Studzinski/WJBC)

By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington has found an issue with its solid waste fee structure.

"If no changes are made we're estimating we'll probably end the current fiscal year, which occurs on April 30, we'll probably have about a $2 million deficit in the fund itself," City manager David Hales said.

Hales said this is mainly because after the city adopted a graduated rate structure, based on what size garbage cart residents have, a lot more people than expected chose the smallest cart.

"The actual number of people who acquired the small carts was about triple what we had estimated," Hales said.

Hales explained there are a limited number of options to combat this.

"We've either got to raise more revenue, eliminate some of the services, or do a combination of the two," said Hales. "We're seeing less revenue coming in to support the solid waste fund and that current fee schedule is not sustainable given the cost of, I think as we call it, the Cadillac service."

The city council will discuss the issue during a special work session Monday night at 6 p.m. in city hall. Hales said the council will likely discuss increasing the fee for bulk waste removal.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].