BRODHEAD - The Green County Solid Waste Management Board last week half-heartedly dove into the process of raising some transfer station recycling prices to meet actual costs.
At its meeting Thursday, Oct. 10, board members voted unanimously to raise the price of dropping off a used passenger car tire by a quarter, from $1.75 to $2, for contracted municipalities and their citizens.
They then agreed to postpone raising prices on other items on the price list until perhaps next month.
Randy Thompson, transfer station manager, said after the meeting he thought board members were reluctant to raise prices out of a concern that it would cause more trash and junk to be dumped in ditches and along waterways. Junk items are found abandoned from time to time, some sitting just outside the station gates, he said.
The 2014 Green County Landfill Department budget has been submitted with total expenditures at $740,720 - about $84,000 less than actual costs in 2012, and $80 more than projected costs in 2013.
Thompson said the department's 2014 budget looks somewhat different than the 2013 budget, with the board's request for maintenance costs of the county's second closed landfill to be segregated from the other operation costs. Revenue and expenditures for many of the station's services are being broken out, creating a more transparent budget.
For example, all of the general administrative costs, about $121,100, were broken down and redistributed to the appropriate line items where they are used.
The budget line item "leachate operations," associated with costs for controlling the contaminated liquid rising from the closed landfills, increased by 33 percent, or $15,500, from $45,200 to $60,700. But $12,100 of the cost increase was a transfer-in for the second landfill. Even the old landfill saw a $2,400 expense increase transferred in from general operations and administration.
Municipalities also saw monthly costs for the second landfill separated from other costs on their bills, starting in April of this year. The first closed landfill was already being billed as a separate item on municipalities' bills.
Thompson said the costs for maintaining landfill No. 2, which closed in 1999, had never been separated from other operating costs, because "it had never been a problem before," partly because users' percentages remained relatively stable.
"Before" was when municipalities contracted as users of the landfill and transfer station and agreed to pay a portion of the administrative and operating costs for running the station based on their portion of usage - the amount of trash weight coming from their municipal boundaries.
But in 2012 that percentage system faltered when some private solid waste haulers working in Green County began to bypass the county transfer station, heading for landfill destinations outside the county. The station froze the municipalities' percentages for billing purposes.
The Solid Waste Management Board plans to work with a budget deficit of $206,000 for 2014. Expected revenues of $534,000, about $222,000 less than in 2013, do not include any coming from the City of Monroe. However, Nate Klassy, chairman of the board, said he had received assurances from Monroe Mayor Bill Ross that the city budget will include costs for using the county transfer station in 2014.
At its meeting Thursday, Oct. 10, board members voted unanimously to raise the price of dropping off a used passenger car tire by a quarter, from $1.75 to $2, for contracted municipalities and their citizens.
They then agreed to postpone raising prices on other items on the price list until perhaps next month.
Randy Thompson, transfer station manager, said after the meeting he thought board members were reluctant to raise prices out of a concern that it would cause more trash and junk to be dumped in ditches and along waterways. Junk items are found abandoned from time to time, some sitting just outside the station gates, he said.
The 2014 Green County Landfill Department budget has been submitted with total expenditures at $740,720 - about $84,000 less than actual costs in 2012, and $80 more than projected costs in 2013.
Thompson said the department's 2014 budget looks somewhat different than the 2013 budget, with the board's request for maintenance costs of the county's second closed landfill to be segregated from the other operation costs. Revenue and expenditures for many of the station's services are being broken out, creating a more transparent budget.
For example, all of the general administrative costs, about $121,100, were broken down and redistributed to the appropriate line items where they are used.
The budget line item "leachate operations," associated with costs for controlling the contaminated liquid rising from the closed landfills, increased by 33 percent, or $15,500, from $45,200 to $60,700. But $12,100 of the cost increase was a transfer-in for the second landfill. Even the old landfill saw a $2,400 expense increase transferred in from general operations and administration.
Municipalities also saw monthly costs for the second landfill separated from other costs on their bills, starting in April of this year. The first closed landfill was already being billed as a separate item on municipalities' bills.
Thompson said the costs for maintaining landfill No. 2, which closed in 1999, had never been separated from other operating costs, because "it had never been a problem before," partly because users' percentages remained relatively stable.
"Before" was when municipalities contracted as users of the landfill and transfer station and agreed to pay a portion of the administrative and operating costs for running the station based on their portion of usage - the amount of trash weight coming from their municipal boundaries.
But in 2012 that percentage system faltered when some private solid waste haulers working in Green County began to bypass the county transfer station, heading for landfill destinations outside the county. The station froze the municipalities' percentages for billing purposes.
The Solid Waste Management Board plans to work with a budget deficit of $206,000 for 2014. Expected revenues of $534,000, about $222,000 less than in 2013, do not include any coming from the City of Monroe. However, Nate Klassy, chairman of the board, said he had received assurances from Monroe Mayor Bill Ross that the city budget will include costs for using the county transfer station in 2014.