CROWN POINT | It just got a little more expensive to pick up trash in Crown Point.

At Wednesday's Board of Works meeting, Mayor David Uran announced the cost of city trash service from Allied Waste would increase from $9.75 to $13.26 a month per household beginning next week.

"As much as we are frustrated by this, they are good corporate neighbors, and it is the first time they've passed it on to us," Uran said.

While the announcement came at the meeting, the board didn't vote on the increase because the contract the city signed with the company allows Allied Waste to increase the fee at its discretion.

"If this board and the legal department as it now exists were in place when the contract was signed, we might have a different result today," City Attorney David Nicholls said.

Christopher Kentopp, Allied Waste's general manager of collection and business transfer units for Northwest Indiana, said the company has seen its own landfill tipping fees increase annually, prompting the fee increase to residents.

He said with labor, fuel and the price of steel for trucks increasing, the company was backed into a corner and had no choice but to pass on the cost.

Kentopp said Allied Waste bills the city and the city transfers the expense to the residents in their water bills.

The city's contract with Allied Waste expires Dec. 31, 2012.