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CORRECTION, NOT PERFECTION: This story originally said that 12,000 tons of trash per month were being collected.

In an email to Tube City Almanac, City Controller Ray Malinchak notes that we misquoted the figure. The actual figure is 12,000 per year.

The error was the Almanac's. We apologize and will spend the rest of the day sitting in a Hefty bag.

. . .

City council will launch a formal investigation into bills being submitted by its trash hauler.

The probe comes after questions have been raised about the increase in the trash tonnage being collected by Nickolich Sanitation of Clairton. According to city officials, since 2008, when Nickolich assumed collection of the city's garbage from the previous hauler, Allied Waste Systems, the amount of garbage collected has gone up by more than 2,000 tons per year, to more than 12,000 tons per year.

An anonymous letter sent to council earlier this year claimed that Nickolich --- which also has contracts to collect garbage in several other nearby municipalities --- is not emptying its trucks completely before collecting trash in McKeesport.

City officials say they are not accusing Nickolich of wrong-doing, but do need to get to the bottom of the problem. Nickolich charges McKeesport $81.55 per ton for trash collection, while Allied charged $97.98 per ton. If the tonnage collected had remained the same, the city would be saving $164,000 per year, or nearly $14,000 per month. Instead, the savings are only $1,200 per year, or about $100 per month. (See correction, above.)

Nickolich has not made a public response to the allegations and last month did not return a call from Tube City Almanac seeking comment.

Public Works Director Nick Shermenti told council last week that his employees have found evidence of outside trash being dumped in the city from surrounding boroughs. In addition, says Dennis Pittman, city administrator, many single-family homes in the city have been subdivided into multiple-unit rentals, which generate more garbage.

But Councilman Darryl Segina, who asked for the investigation, says those factors wouldn't seem to account for a 20 percent increase in trash.

"There has always been dumping in the city," Segina says. "I don't understand how tonnage has increased so dramatically when the population has gone down. Something is definitely wrong."

. . .

Foundation Grants $100K for Demolitions: A foundation chaired by philanthropist Richard M. Scaife has given the city $100,000 for demolition of abandoned buildings.

The gift from Pittsburgh's Allegheny Foundation, announced last week, is the latest of several contributions from Scaife to benefit the city's blight eradication program. In the last four years, Scaife foundations have given $450,000 toward McKeesport's demolition programs.

According to its website, the foundation's mission includes historic preservation, civic development and education. It is chaired by Scaife, publisher of the Daily News and a chain of other newspapers, including the Tribune-Review.

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