BLOOMINGTON -- Tearing down a rickety garage or cleaning out the basement will cost more for residents if they take the debris to the curb for the city to haul away.

The city will start Dec. 1 using a new fee structure for its bulk waste where residents will be charged $25 per end loader bucketful for the third and subsequent buckets. The extra charge will be added onto a resident's monthly water bill.

If the crews can pick up the debris in one or two buckets, residents will not see the extra $25 charge.

"We are trying to bring the cost of our service in line with the money we collect for the service," said Public Works Director Jim Karch.

Residents pay $14 a month for refuse collection that includes garbage pickup, curbside recycling and bulk waste disposal. The city's cost for the service is about $21.55 per household. About $12.65 of that $21.55 monthly cost is for bulk waste. Garbage collection is about $7.30, while recycling is about $1.60.

For years, the city's general fund has subsidized the difference between the fees collected and the $6.3 million annual cost of the program.

Earlier this year the City Council raised refuse collection fees from $7, which generated about $2 million annually toward the program, to $14 a month. The new fee generates $4 million per year, leaving the city's ailing $77 million general fund to pick up the remaining $2.3 million in costs.

Karch does not know how much the new bulk waste fee will generate but he hopes it significantly closes that $2.3 million gap.

Program superintendent Rob Henson said city crews typically use an end loader to pick up the bulk waste from the curb and drop the material in a dump truck to haul away. The end loader bucket holds about 2 cubic yards of material.

Brush and leaves will not be includes in the new limits. Also, sod, concrete and shingles will no longer be picked up. Residents will have to arrange to have those heavy materials hauled away.