NORTH BEND — Residents and businesses in the city will pay a little bit more for trash service starting in December.

The North Bend City Council approved a 2.78 percent rate increase Wednesday for North Bend Sanitation, despite some councilors’ concerns about the timing. Councilors Janet Rubin and Howard Graham voted against the rate hike. Councilor Bill Richardson recused himself from the discussion, because he is the site manager for Waste Connections, which does business as North Bend Sanitation.

The rate hike will be effective starting Dec. 1.

Price increases would include a jump from $17.85 to $18.35 for pick up of a one 35-gallon trash can per week; and from $80.91 for one 160-gallon can to $83.16. The increase is about 75 percent of the 2007 consumer price index for inflation.

Rubin said that with the drop in gas prices, she expected fuel savings for North Bend Sanitation would offset other costs to the company. She felt the increase request came at a poor economic time.

“I’m just a little disappointed that it’s happening now,” she said.

Rubin suggested that the agency return with its request in the spring, when the council will have a better notion of the state of the economy, or after President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in.

Councilor Larry Garboden said the increase didn’t seem unreasonable, especially with other costs going up. Mayor Rick Wetherell added that includes costs for where North Bend Sanitation dumps its trash at the Beaver Hill disposal site, which is operated by the Coos County Solid Waste Department.

“Personally, for another 50 cents a can, I don’t care,” Garboden said.

District Manager Pete Smart of North Bend Sanitation said the increase is necessary to cover the company’s inflation costs and fuel prices will inevitably rise again. The request represents only the fourth adjustment for the sanitation company since 2000, he said.

“It’s not a matter of this time, so much as staying up with inflation in general,” Smart said.

He added that he had to ask the council for increases in small increments such as this — the last one was requested in November 2007 for about 2 percent — because waiting could get the company in a bit of a pickle. He described a similar situation in which a sanitation company in Prineville waited so long to ask for an increase that it had to push for a $9 one about two years ago.

“I apologize for this, I wish there was another way. ... I can’t make magic out of going backward.”

Rubin asked if there was anyway he could come back to the council in April, around the same time a similar request will be made of the Coos Bay City Council.

Smart said that wouldn’t be a good idea, as North Bend Sanitation is already behind.

City Administrator Jan Willis said the meeting and topic was well-publicized and she had received no complaints regarding the increase.

The council approved the change to its resolution in a 4-2 split vote.