At the August 12 Town Board meeting, a resident asked the plain question: when the new trash contract lands, when would residents see it on their bills?
The answer came back in three words — “first of the year” — followed by a one-word answer to whether there would be an increase at all: “Guaranteed.”
So this is a heads-up, written before the number exists, about a cost that is coming and how to follow it.
Where your trash charge actually lives
This is the part that surprises people. You don’t get a bill from County Waste. Residential collection in Schaghticoke is paid for through a special district charge on your town tax bill — the line that reads Solid Waste Improvement District. The town contracts a hauler, and the district levy spreads the cost across the properties it serves.
The most recent figure on the public record is the 2025 levy, from the November 7, 2024 budget hearing: the Solid Waste Improvement District was budgeted at $651,020, with $638,190 to be raised by taxes.
The bid specifications put the town at roughly 2,744 residential units. That works out to about $233 a year per unit — around $19 a month — though that is our arithmetic, not a published rate, and the district’s parcel count is not necessarily identical to the specs’ unit count. Treat it as the right neighborhood, not a quote. Your own bill’s Solid Waste line is the exact figure.
What is being bought
The contract out to bid covers January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2028, with up to three optional one-year renewals. County Waste holds the current service. The specs describe essentially what you have today: weekly year-round curbside pickup, a 65-gallon cart each for trash and single-stream recycling (95-gallon on request, no extra charge), and weekly yard-waste collection April through November. Town trash goes to the ERCSWMA transfer station in Canaan. The hauler also services about 18 community properties — Town Hall, the firehouses, the ambulance corps, the library, Legion posts and churches — at no cost to them.
The scale, from the specs: about 2,140 tons of trash and 763 tons of recyclables in 2025.
We host the full bid specifications (PDF), and the earlier write-up covers the service terms in more detail.
The three dates that set your number
September 9 — the award. Bids were opened August 6. The Board said it will vote on the contract at its next regular meeting, and that when it does it will have the percentage increase and, hopefully, the dollar amount that lands on your tax bill. That is the meeting to attend or ask about if you want the number early. Second Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.
September–October — the budget. The town’s internal budget process starts in September and becomes public in October, and the waste-collection line is part of it. This is where the contract price turns into a district levy.
November — adoption. The Board holds a public hearing on the budget and adopts it. Last year that hearing was November 6; the 2026 budget rose less than 1% overall for the town’s share, with health insurance up 17% as the main pressure. A trash increase would show up in this document.
January — your bill. The new charge appears on the town and county tax bill.
Service, separately from price
Price is one thing; whether the truck shows up is another. Residents raised both at the August 12 meeting — missed yard-waste pickups, and drivers skipping Avenue A, a short dead-end street that delivery drivers also avoid. Town officials said one of County Waste’s own complaints was that it did not have individual addresses for town residents, so the town supplied an address list that the company is loading into its system, which should help drivers find houses.
If your pickup gets missed, the Town Clerk’s office is the place to report it — 518-753-6915 ext 100 — and residents at the meeting made clear that calls do get logged. Worth doing: a documented pattern of missed service is exactly the kind of thing that matters while a contract is being awarded.
What we will do
We will update this article when the Board awards the contract on September 9 — with the winning bidder, the percentage increase, and the dollar figure if the town gives one. Then again when the budget carrying it is adopted, and once more when the bills go out, so you can check the line against what was promised.
If you would rather not check back, ask Dort — it reads this site, including the minutes as we publish them.
Sources: the Town of Schaghticoke Notice to Bidders and Specifications dated June 10, 2026; the 2025 budget hearing minutes for the district levy; the 2026 budget hearing minutes; and a recording of the August 12, 2026 Town Board meeting for the board’s statements about timing and the expected increase. Per-unit arithmetic is ours and approximate. The town’s official minutes and budget documents are the authoritative record.
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