On Sept. 19, I attended the first meeting of Slippery Rock borough’s Solid Waste/Bulk Trash citizens’ committee, at which it was announced that our trash hauler, Tri-County Industries, would agree to move the bulk trash pickup date from winter back to the Friday after Slippery Rock University’s commencement in May.

The catch is that it will cost an additional $1.50 per month per residential unit to do it; since there are 1,183 units in the borough, that’s an extra $21,294 per year that we have to shell out in order to get what we have gotten for more than two decades — a bulk trash collection date around the college’s spring graduation date.

Since all we are talking about is 43 tons of garbage, the difference in trash from last year’s May to this year’s March, it means the borough taxpayers would be paying roughly $495 per ton — which is an outrageous amount.

Furthermore, while Slippery Rock Borough tacks on a $3 administrative fee to everyone’s garbage bill, the borough council has yet to tell us why we have to pay what amounts to an illegal trash tax, when it’s the Slippery Rock Municipal Authority that does all of the garbage billing as well as bill collection.

Talk about double gouging!