OGDEN DUNES | Trash service could cost a little more, later this year.

Town Council members opened the sole bid for residential trash service Monday night. They solicited bids from four local companies, aside from the public notice, but only Chesterton-based Able Disposal submitted a bid.

Under Able's bid package, weekly residential trash pick-up would cost $13.18 a month beginning in July, with an additional $4.16 for weekly recycling pick-up. The combined cost is about 2 percent more than what residents are currently paying, Town Councilman Eric Kurtz said.

The agreement also calls for annual increases through 2012, with residents eventually being charged $14.33 for trash and $4.52 for recycling. An additional charge could apply if the price of diesel fuel goes above $3.50 per gallon, Jim Smith, a sales manager with Able Disposal, said. But, if the council decided to only have recycling pick-up every other week, Smith said, residents could save about $1.50 a month, and the company would provide residents with larger bins, roughly the same size as their trash receptacles.

Susan MiHalo, chairperson of the town's Environmental Advisory Board, said that on average 25 percent of the town's refuse is recycled.

"I'm just afraid that will go down if we recycle every other week," she said.

Town Council President Brad Wood said some single people and empty nesters fill up their totes once a month, while some families could easily fill more than one tote a week.

Plan Commission chairman Frank Stimson said he and his wife need the weekly pick-up.

"Every week there is more in the recycle bin that the trash bin," Stimson said. "We could not go two weeks without recycling."

Council members agreed to take the entire bid package under advisement until their February meeting.