The City Council Wednesday approved a 3.5-percent increase in garbage collection rates.
“It averages about 79 cents per residential customer,” said Julie Jackson, municipal manager for Republic Services. “This is the highest it’s been since we’ve instituted that refuse rate, but I think we talked about that at the time, that it sort of fluctuates. Last year, I think it was about 15 cents per customer or something. We try really hard to keep the…