Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Calumet Village Council members discuss the termination of residential garbage pickup at the council’s April 17 meeting.

CALUMET — Village residents received word earlier this week that the village will no longer offer weekly residential garbage pickup, which will go into effect on May 31.

The issue of garbage pickup was discussed at recent Village Council meetings. At the April meeting, Village President Dave Geisler said the service would be ending soon, primarily due to cost.

The village found it was losing money in being involved with the service. In order to break even, the village would need to charge more than the fees charged by commercial waste haulers.

In the long run, as well as saving the village money by ending the service, the suspension of garbage pickup will also save residents money, the council decided.

An April 23 letter to village residents advised residents they are nevertheless obligated by law to see to it that disposal of garbage is done properly and lawfully.

Garbage disposal can be done, the letter stated, by directly making an individual contract with a commercial waste hauler for weekly pickup.

The village has discussed such individual contracts with two major waste haulers, Waste Management, and Don Bukema, Inc.

At this time, Waste Management has not indicated to the village if it will work with residential customers on an individual basis, the letter stated.

The Bukema contractor will offer residential contracts for weekly pickup at a fee of $18 per month, which is cheaper than the village could conduct pickups after it implemented a necessary fee increase.

In addition to a contract for residential pickup service, residents can exercise the option of bringing trash either to the Waste Management station on Enterprise Drive off of Sharon Avenue in Houghton, or to the Houghton County transfer station located on Erickson Drive in Atlantic Mine.