By Carol Anders Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — Trash pick-up fees were the main topic of discussion for the Plymouth Common Council.
In earlier meetings, a fee increase to $16 per month for city residents, up from $15.08, was placed on the table.
Don Gardner, council member, made his thoughts on the matter clear.

“I don’t know why we are raising (fees) by 92 cents since we are getting rid of a whole department.” he said. In explaining his reasoning, Gardner said there would be no vehicles, no maintenance and no fuel costs.
“If it’s in their (agreement), I won’t sign it,” he said.
Member Mark Neidig agreed. “We really haven’t gotten a firm number on savings yet,” Neidig said. “I’m really not in favor of a 92 cent above bid price.”
Councilman Mike Delp also agreed with his fellow board members: “I’m probably not going to support $16 at this time.”
City Attorney Nelson Chipman explained that 20 percent of the fees go to Superintendent Jim Marquardt’s salary and longevity and another 20 percent go to the utility clerk’s salary. He also said that there were mailing fees to be included.
The final vote was 3-2 in favor of adopting the $15.08 per month fee.
In other business:
• The Sanitary Board voted to proceed with payments to Selge Construction.
• Mark Sullivan, Common-wealth Engineers, presented information on a lift station project that is near completion. The project was a part of the long-term control project phase II on the Yellow River.
Sullivan said two vendors had notified Commonwealth through their attorneys that they had not been paid. Sullivan said they have discussed the matter with the performance bonding company used by the city. He said Selge Construction said the problem was a cash-flow problem that would be satisfied.
Sullivan said the project came in at $23,726.60 under bid. Some contingencies, such as the need for extra materials and additional excavation adding up to $8,650 brought the project in at $18,623.86 under for a total project cost of $1,064,239.04.
However, Sullivan ex-plained that the original cost of purchasing a maintenance agreement was $8,400; the city will only pay a discounted fee of $6,700. The $8,400 had been included in the original contract with Selge, but was taken out.
Sullivan explained that deleting that item makes the project cost under by approximately $11,000 to $12,000.
Although all of the “punch list” items noted by inspections by Common-wealth and the city are nearly completed, the city is withholding $8,300 until everything is finished.
That amount is 200 percent of the estimated costs.