Trash trouble in Fall River
By Bianca Buono
@BBuonoABC6
The trash controversy in Fall River is not going away after thousands of residents got notices for payment of trash fees, but many of them had already paid.
"I got it late yesterday in the mail, a billing saying I didn’t pay for our trash pickup,” said Joe Carrero of Fall River.
Joe Carrero is just one of 6,000 Fall River residents who received a final notice for payment in the mail of this year’s $120 trash fee.
"At my age at first I thought that I didn’t pay it,” said Carrero.
But he did pay it and so did several other residents who kicked off their weekend by waiting in line Friday afternoon at city hall.
"Like everybody else in line I’m just waiting to straighten this out because we’re home owners and you know that’s how it works,” Carrero said.
"The mailing addresses were confused and some people that had already paid unfortunately were given a notice that they hadn’t paid,” said Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia.
Controversy surrounding the trash fees is nothing new for Fall River. In fact, it led to the recall of former Mayor Will Flanagan. But Mayor Correia has promised to get rid of the fees and he says that’s still part of the plan.
"I can tell you we’ve been working really hard. It’s kind of like a secret. We don’t want to tell anybody yet. But we did figure out a way to eliminate that fee,” Correia said.
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That secret plan will be announced along with the 2017 budget in June, but until then he says residents need to continue paying the fee.
"The owed amount to the city is still $1.1 million that we haven’t collected on this fee which is very important to balance our budget, which is a budget that I inherited,” said Correia.
Mayor Correia says if you did receive the notice by mistake, you can ignore it. If you’re still not sure if you have a past due balance, you can call the collector’s office at 508-324-2425.
