Gardnerville sanitation workers work their route.
Trash rates will go up 35 percent for Gardnerville residents on July 1, 2025, after the Town Board approved the increase on Dec. 3.
Two residents spoke against the rate increase, with Julie Duda renewing her call for an expense audit, a salary benefit allocation and smaller tote options or the ability to opt out of the service.
Resident Alice Meyer echoed Duda’s call for options for residential customers.
“As a senior and as a person who lives alone, I’ve rarely filled my tote even halfway full.”
Meyer said her bill will be increased $25 per quarter.
She presented information on variable rate waste management in the hopes that the town board would consider changing its operation.
Work on the rate increase has been ongoing since Town Manager Erik Nilssen reported that the town would need to go for another increase during the spring budget discussions.
Gardnerville resident and incoming board member Barbara Smallwood supported the rate increase.
“I was a commissioner when we had the great trash revolt in Douglas County,” she said. “I think people who are moving to the towns … which are the children of Douglas County, know that trash is mandatory in Minden and Gardnerville.”
Gardnerville’s Health and Sanitation Department is audited by Douglas County’s Finance Department, which also handles the town’s accounting, Smallwood said.
“In regard to the trash and one size, the trash truck costs the same, the gas costs the same, the load, the tires, all of that,” she said. “There are a lot of issues with trash. I think it is appropriate for the town to raise the rates and have a set schedule of how they will be raised and reviewed.”
Town Board Vice Chairman Bill Chernock said the town board was reluctant to raise rates.
“None of us want to raise your costs, because it is raising our costs,” he said. “But in the climate that we are currently in, to limit the raise to $8 a month speaks fairly on how the staff are able to control costs.”
Nilssen said it should be at least four years, and maybe more, before town seeks another rate increase.
Among the factors driving the rate increase are higher prices for garbage trucks, personnel costs and the Carson City Landfill’s increase in rates.
Both Minden and Gardnerville use the Carson City Landfill. Trash pickup is mandatory within the town boundaries. Outside of the towns, Douglas Disposal handles trash pickup in the East Fork Township.
Minden and Douglas Disposal, which has a franchise agreement with the county, both raised their rates in 2023.
