A plan by the city of Westbrook to stop collecting trash at some apartment buildings has raised the ire of some landlords.

If approved, the move would change the city’s policy of picking up trash from buildings with less than 10 units. Under the new policy, the city would only pick up trash in buildings with 3 or fewer units.

The city has said it is trying to lower its trash pickup costs, but some landlords say they feel they are being burdened with costs the city should be responsible for.

The Westbrook City Council has delayed a vote on the proposed change and will be seeking more comments from the public before addressing the issue again at its Aug. 7 meeting.

The council was scheduled to vote to change the city ordinance to eliminate trash pickup for apartment buildings with three or more units on Monday, July 3. Councilors chose to table the item and revisit it even before the meeting began.

“At this point I think it’s important to get more input,” said City Councilor Ed Symbol, who said he’d like to have at least one meeting with landlords before voting.

Council President Brendan Rielly said he is working with the public services director and the council to schedule a meeting.

“I think this will be a very productive meeting,” Rielly said. “I look forward to meeting with the landlords to see if we can come up with some creative solutions.”

The city currently provides weekly trash collection from apartments with as many as nine units but is seeking to reduce overall trash collection costs. According to city estimates, Westbrook has 67 four-unit apartments and 37 five-to-nine-unit apartments for a total of over 550 units.

The change is expected to save the city over $30,000 by city estimates and will take effect on Oct. 1 if approved by the council. The delay is to give landlords affected by the change to make alternative arrangements for trash pickup.

On Monday, a number of concerned apartment owners voiced their displeasure with the city possibly eliminating their trash pickup. If the pickup were to be eliminated, landlords would be required to pay for a dumpster and pickup by a private company, which would in turn force them to pass the extra expense onto their tenants.

“I’ll eat it,” said Martin Toderico, who owns a building with four one-bedroom units. “But I’ll pass it on (to the tenants).”

Chris Raney, who owns a four-unit building on Valentine Street, said he just renewed his tenants’ leases and had to increase their rent by $25 per month to cover the rising cost of fuel. He said if he had to increase the rent by another $25 to cover trash collection, he thinks his tenants will leave.

Roger Charest, who said he is a relatively new landlord in Westbrook who bought a building a year-and-a-half ago, said he himself might leave the city.

“I love the way the city has come into it. You have new businesses coming in here. The walkways. It’s gorgeous. It’s a nice place to go, a nice place to live,” he said. “If it doesn’t make financial sense, I’m going to leave.”

Other owners, who live in their buildings, spoke of their apartments not as commercial ventures but as their homes.

“For some of us, it is our home,” said Greg Theriault. “You know, I’ve put my life savings into this building to remodel it. The last thing I want to do is take up a parking space to have a dumpster there.”

Klaus Schulz asked the council if it was trying to drive him out of the town. He said he’s close with his tenants in the four-unit building he lives in on Brackett Street and knows their financial situations. He said he feels as though having to pay for trash disposal is unfair and may force some of his tenants to move. It may force him to move, as well.

“Any little increase just drives them out, and they’re already struggling,” he said, adding that the city should find another place to find the money, including reducing the salaries of city officials.

“Why take it always from the little guys,” he said. “It’s not like we have 100 buildings.”

Schulz also said he was angry he didn’t hear about the vote until the end of the week before. As a courtesy, the city mailed landlords who would be affected by the change, letters informing them of the vote on Monday. Many of the landlords said they received the letter on Friday, which didn’t give them enough time to look into hiring private trash collection.

“Getting this letter was a real shock to me,” said Chris Raney.

“The people who spoke are absolutely correct that they should have received more notice,” said Rielly. “That’s why I thought tabling the item and having this meeting was important.”

The issue of eliminating pickup is tied into the greater issue of trash pickup and a curbside recycling program for the city. Many of the landlords who spoke said they were in favor of a pay-per-bag program whereby residents would pay for trash pickup based on the amount of trash they produce. The city would then provide a free curbside recycling program. In that system, residents have incentive to recycle more and produce less trash.

The city council and administration have put off deciding on a curbside recycling program until next spring. According to Rielly, the city and the council are waiting until Regional Waste Systems makes a decision on whether it’s changing its recycling system. Regional Waste Systems is expected to make that decision by next spring.

For now, the council has tabled this issue until its next regularly scheduled meeting on August 7 at 7 p.m. in room 114 of Westbrook High School.

In other news, the council voted to replace Plan-It Recycling of Gorham with Pine Tree Waste of Scarborough as one of the city’s two universal waste recycling sites for the recycling of televisions and computer monitor. The city’s other site being Riverside Recycling of Portland. The decision was made based on what the council, city and at least one resident consider improper business practices by Plan-It Recycling.

According to a March 27 letter from Mayor Bruce Chuluda to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the city has met with the town of Gorham and Plan-It Recycling representatives to mitigate problems, including visible waste piles, dust, debris, noise and heavy truck traffic. According to the administration, although the company agreed to change its practices, its has only addressed some of the issues.

Plan-It Recycling has a site just over the Gorham line across Route 25 from the home of Westbrook resident Bob Morrill, who has expressed concern over the company’s practices. He said at the Monday meeting that the problems still exist and he feels the company has made no real attempt to change. He urged the council to replace the company for the city’s recycling.

“If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck,” he said.