New London — The city is seeking to collect nearly $360,000 in disposal fees from S. Tinnerello & Sons Disposal Inc., and the law director has sent a letter demanding the New London company pay the allegedly unpaid bills.

“If it is not paid, we plan to proceed with litigation,” city Director of Law Thomas J. Londregan told the City Council at its Feb. 19 meeting.

City finance officials said the company is currently paying the city for the commercial waste that it hauls to the trash-to-energy plant in Preston.

The waste Tinnerello takes to Preston from the city is commercial refuse that the city's Public Works Department doesn't handle.

“These back bills are the issue,” said interim Finance Director Donald Goodrich, who estimated the bills are at least five years old. “It's nothing current. He's current with his obligations.”

The plant charges the city for the waste that Tinnerello trucks to Preston on behalf of businesses in the city, Goodrich said.

The plant sends an invoice to the city based on the number of tons of garbage the company hauls to Preston. The city then bills Tinnerello, Goodrich said. Tinnerello bills the businesses.

City Treasurer Donna Rinehart said the Jefferson Avenue company owes the city $356,330.48, which is a combination of the unmade payments and the 18-percent annual interest the city charges on them.

Rinehart said the company, which has met with city officials to discuss the payments, is disputing the city's interest calculation and the amount of waste for which the city billed the company.

City attorney Brian K. Estep, speaking on the law director's behalf, declined to answer questions about the dispute.

He also declined to make public the law director's letter to Tinnerello, citing the likelihood that the issue will wind up in court.

“It's obviously pre-litigation stages,” Estep said.

The city's bills to Tinnerello are between $50,000 to $60,000 a month, Rinehart said. If one $50,000 payment went unpaid for a year, for example, the annual interest would be $9,000.

Company co-owner Salvatore Tinnerello said Monday that the city's claims of back payments are “not a real issue.”

“I have a longtime, solid business relations with the City of New London,” Tinnerello said, “and we are discussing some bills and some discrepancies.”

Tinnerello declined to elaborate on the disputed payments and the law director's letter.

“I'm discussing the bills that are at hand” with the city, he said. “At this time, to discuss anything would be premature.”

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