LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A local nonprofit is being forced to tighten its budget.
The Community Counseling Center near Sahara and Eastern Avenues received a letter in the mail before Christmas that said their quarterly trash bill was going to increase at the beginning of 2019.
When CCC saw the statement, Theresa Lucero who’s in charge of finances, couldn't believe it.
"This is only for three months, so $753.57 is a long way from $80.82," Lucero said. As what was once an $80 bill has ballooned up to more than $750.
Lucero told 13 Action News the Community Counseling Center could not afford it.
CCC is a nonprofit that helps low-income people with drug abuse and mental illnesses; it relies heavily on grants and donations to operate.
"In December we got a letter saying we're going to have to increase your price," said Lucero.
She said she called Republic Services to find out how much more the new quarterly bill would be - it never crossed Lucero’s mind the new amount would be so high.
"We were just flabbergasted that it increased that much," said Lucero as she looked the statements.
The billing statement shows CCC receives a 25 percent discount for being a local nonprofit.
However, Lucero was hopeful the high bill was a mistake, but it was not.
13 Action News reached out to Republic Services to explain the increase, and it sent over the same letter Lucero received last year.
Republic Services said in another statement the increasing labor costs and the price of new equipment are upping their customers' bills.
That increase is making things difficult on CCC.
"We prevent people from being homeless, we reunite families," said Michelle Velardo, the director of CCC.
Lucero said the dramatic increase is at the expense of about eight people they could serve per quarter.
"Eight people that can end up in the street doing drugs, selling drugs, and resorting to violence and crime," Lucero said.
Republic Services told the Community Counseling Center it has an option to get a smaller dumpster, but with the amount of trash they toss out, that's not an option, according to the center.
