New Marthasville residents will pay a higher utility deposit now that each residential property is supposed to have a free recycling cart provided by Grace Hauling. The new deposit will be $150 which is $50 more than the current fee assessed by the city to cover water, sewer and trash service. Since all residential properties began paying for recycling service in August, O’Fallon-based Grace Hauling provided a recycling cart to encourage participation, but there had been a few instances where the cart had gone missing from homes when residents moved away. The city had been paying the $50 charge to Grace Hauling to purchase a new cart for those residences. But city officials insisted that couldn’t continue to occur and said the fee needed to be assessed since residents are responsible for the carts. At the Feb. 8 board of aldermen meeting, three of the four aldermen — Jim Struckhoff, Keith Hagedorn and John Graham — voted in favor of the new deposit fee. Alderman Leo Tobben was the only member voting no. City employees said they would require a resident who is moving to show proof that the cart remains at the location prior to refunding the $50 cart deposit. The city has a log of what residences received the recycling carts from Grace Hauling. Each cart has an identification number that is recorded by city staff and should match the addresses provided by the trash company. Tobben objected to the city’s involvement and procedure in dealing with the cart deposit. He explained that his son moved to a residence on South Ridge where a cart was not provided, so he took one from one of his unoccupied rental units. He added that he knew of other residences where the carts were not dropped off and raised concerns about a cart being stolen from a home. “If (the city is) collecting the deposit, you are putting yourself in the middle of it,” Tobben remarked. Mayor Dale Verges said the city needed to have a procedure in place so it wouldn’t continue to be responsible for paying the missing cart fee to the trash company. “I agree it’s not really (the city’s) problem, but since the city provides the service and we are administering this, we have to accept the responsibility on this,” Verges said to Tobben. “If one of your renters leaves and takes the trash can with them, we’re going to be out $50. We either decided it’s not worth the time or travel and we write a check for $50 or we go through this and pay the deposit and they have to prove the trash can is still there.” Since the Feb. 8 meeting, City Clerk Carla Heggemann said once a resident moves out, the recycling cart will be picked up and put into storage by the city to help streamline the procedure when dealing with the carts. Though current residents won’t be subjected to paying the higher deposit, the recycling cart will be their responsibility similar to new residents. If they were to move out of the city and take the cart, half of the $100 deposit would not be refunded.