SLIPPERY ROCK — The bulk trash date in the borough should be changed back to May, a committee recommended on Wednesday.

“We don’t want it in March,” said committee member Molly Breakiron.

Borough council last year voted on a three-year garbage contract with Tri-County Industries which included changing one of the dates of bulk trash pickup from May, the same week as Slippery Rock University’s graduation, to March. Since May, several residents and landlords have urged council to return to the later date.

Council in July formed the committee made up of one council member, landlords, residents and SRU representatives. The committee can make recommendations to council but cannot make changes.

The committee decided that the spring bulk trash date should return to May, preferably the Monday after SRU’s graduation. However, council Vice President Christy Tichy said it would be up to Tri-County to choose the actual day.

The fall bulk pickup date would remain in September.

Committee member Buddy Clements, who is president of SRU’s student government association, said that many of the SRU students he spoke to said that the date would have to be after graduation, not before.

At the committee’s previous meeting, Tichy told members that it would cost customers an extra $1.50 per month to have the date restored to May.

She asked the committee if they and other residents would be willing to pay that fee. Mack Porter said he would pay, but he does not know why the extra cost exists.

“I don’t see any reason for it,” Porter said.

Tichy said that Tri-County would add the fee because the contract was written with the March date in mind. Changing it to May would cause the rate to increase.

Tom Cooper said there is a chance that it is cheaper for the borough to put several dumpsters in the borough building’s parking lot for one day and have residents bring their bulk trash to dump in them.

He said that he would be willing to pay the $1.50 as long as it comes out of the $3 borough service fee included in the garbage bill. Customers are charged $14.27, but only $11.27 goes to Tri-County. The remaining $3 is a service fee that goes to the borough.

Tichy said that the fee is a borough budget item, and pays for additional duties the borough administrator does. Cooper said that the list of items the fee pays for is “inflated.”

The committee decided to recommend to council that the $1.50 should come out of the $3 fee rather than have residents pay it.

During public comment, Bonnie Davis asked if the September bulk date could be changed from the end of September to either the end of August to early September. She said this would make it easier for students to move in.

Also during public comment, Chuck Brochetti, a board member of the Slippery Rock Municipal Authority, which sends out the garbage bills, noted that the garbage contract is $90,000 more than the previous one.

However, he said that some numbers that he checked seem to suggest that the borough may have overpaid its contract by $11,000.

“I hope we’re wrong,” Brochetti said, saying that the borough should look into it.