Beginning Tuesday, Kingfisher residents who are water and sanitation customers could start bringing excess trash to the city’s newly-named collection center.

City commissioners approved an ordinance raising residential sanitation rates by $2.50 per month to fund the center.

Located at the same site on the north side of town where residents had been allowed to bring oversized items or excess trash for years, the collection center features four oversized roll-off containers for the collection of solid waste, plus one for metals and two for mixed recyclables.

So-called “green waste” (tree limbs and brush cut to 48 inches or shorter) also will still be accepted at the center.

Commonly referred to as “the dump,” although it was never a landfill, the facility had been closed since early fall when a ramp collapsed in heavy rains.

The facility remained closed over ongoing discussions with the Department of Environmental Quality over whether it could continue to operate in the same capacity as before without being in violation of state regulations.

The final answer was no, at least not without major modifications that carried an estimated price tag of more than $3 million, Slezickey said at the February city meeting.

In its latest incarnation, the site will be open from 11:30 a.m.to 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

To access the site, residents must present their current utility bill, along with photo identification to validate eligibility.

Trash must be bagged or in sealed boxes and appliances must have the doors removed and all waste must be placed in the container by the customer, not the attendant on duty.

Prohibited items include tires, batteries, shingles, paints, appliances containing freon, liquids and radioactive, volatile, explosive, toxic or highly flammable materials.

Notice of the rate increase and details about the collection center will be sent out with March billing statements.

Commissioner Bill Tucker questioned the amount of the rate increase as possibly being too high until City Treasurer Anita James pointed out that the difference between what Oklahoma Environmental Management Authority charges the city for trash service and fees collected from its customers is only $12,000 annually.

“And that’s before we pay for salaries for our guys who pick up excess trash, electricity at the site or anything else,” she said.

Slezickey said customers will still be able to call City Hall for curbside pickup of oversized items.

“I’ve heard positive comments about just paying more money,” Commissioner Roxie Alexander said. “I know we’re going up on rates, but we’re offering lots of services for that.”