Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners made a motion at the April 14 meeting to start the process of collecting certain delinquent garbage fees from residents in the township. Commissioner Ken Snyder said Portnoff Law Associates is not currently trying to collect these specific fees and that the township will attempt to collect them.

Solicitor Jack Gross reported 37 offenders have been identified as those the township will potentially pursue. Deputy Mayor Jack Meyers said the collectible amount, as of now, is around $377,000, not including revenue.

At February’s commissioners meeting, Meyers said delinquent garbage fees go to Portnoff for collection, which has been done since 2017. He reported Portnoff has received almost $2 million in delinquent garbage fees in the past eight years, and they have collected $1.7 million in those fees.

Snyder has been advocating for acting on collecting these delinquent garbage fees since February when the topic was brought up at every board meeting. He also noted the possibility of the delinquencies from the garbage fees potentially doubling from the $300,000 range, not including interest and other penalties, with the increase in the garbage fee, which took place at the beginning of the year.

According to Gross, the highest offenders date back to 2014-17 before the township used Portnoff for collection, meaning some residents have not paid their garbage fees during that period.

Liens have been placed on their homes since these individuals haven’t paid their garbage fees. Gross said despite this, some still have not paid their garbage fees.

“There are liens on all these properties, but you can’t execute on a lien. A lien is there that protects the township,” Gross said.

Gross noted there are several writs of execution toward this process of collecting the delinquent garbage fees, and their first measure will be to send a letter to these residents saying they must pay.

“We anticipate that we’ll get some response, but most of these people have been avoiding it for 10 years, so I don’t think we’ll get a lot,” Gross said.

If there’s still an outstanding balance after legal notice and attempts at collection, Gross reported it would go to a sheriff’s sale. He said this is the costliest part of the process, resulting in significant expenses and time.

“Realistically, we’re not going to get all this money back,” Commissioner Alberta Scarfaro said.

Robert Bloom, a township resident, asked the board why they think these people will pay now after avoiding it for all these years.

“I don’t know how we can sit here and leave $450,000 on our accounts receivable growing and not attempt to get it,” Snyder responded.

The motion to approve the collection of certain delinquent garbage fees by the township passed with a 6-0 vote at the April 14 meeting.