MONROE - The future of the county's solid waste management facility is in question, now that an estimated 70 percent of the trash it usually receives is now bypassing it completely.
The county's transfer station near Brodhead, commonly referred to as the landfill, has been forced to lay off one employee and leave a second position vacant, for lack of work.
Garbage and recyclables are sorted at the facility, with the trash then taken to a landfill in Janesville.
The decrease in usage came suddenly on Monday, Dec. 26, when Veolia Environmental Services, a private waste collection company, started redirecting its collected waste from Green County to a private landfill near Darien.
Veolia holds numerous municipality service contracts, as well as private contracts in the county, which is why that company's usage was so high, according to the county's facility manager Randy Thompson.
The Green County Solid Waste Management Board discussed the situation Thursday, and, because of the decreased labor costs, members agreed to lower user fees by $2 per ton, according to Nate Klassy, board chairman.
But board members want to hear from users of the facility before taking any other actions. Five-year agreements between the facility and its municipal users will come due for renewal in 2013.
The meeting is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Green County Courthouse. Municipalities were being contacted Friday to ensure good attendance. The meeting will be open to the public.
In the wake of losing Veolia
If the county facility's loss of business and revenue created a simple reduction in need and operation costs, the solution to keeping the facility open might be as simple as downsizing.
But the billing process and the user agreements with many of the municipalities in the county hinge on the amount each entity uses of the landfill, including the amount any private contractor or individual contributes to the facility.
Veolia's pulling out of the county waste processing services has set off a cascade of changing variables for all the entities involved.
In one sense, the Green County waste processing and recycling facility operates much like a utility. The county does not levy taxes to operate the facility; instead, user fees are charged.
Users, whether a municipality, private company or an individual, pay their own user fee, called a tipping fee. The tipping fee will be billed at $45 per ton of trash under the newly reduced rate.
But the facility also operates like a weighted partnership. Each of the 15 municipality members of the facility pays a portion of the monthly costs for upkeep and maintenance, calculated from its percentage of its contribution to the total trash that month.
The percentage is based on the weight of any trash brought in from that municipality, even by private contractors and individuals.
For example, trash from the City of Monroe typically makes up about 55 percent of the county facility's total waste amassed each month and, thus, the city pays 55 percent of the total maintenance costs.
The trash Veolia collected in Monroe, mostly commercial or industrial, was included in the city's weight calculation, up until the end of 2011. Last year, the city of paid an average of about $5,800 per month for maintenance costs.
Whether the county facility can continue to operate may depend heavily on whether its biggest user, the City of Monroe, continues to use it, said Klassy Friday.
Monroe's conundrum
Whether the City of Monroe continues to use the county facility depends upon an abundance of moving statistics and opinions, according to Phil Rath, Monroe city administrator. Rath is currently looking at the multitude of variables, with plenty of unknowns, to determine the city's best course of action for future trash collection.
In the past, the city street department has reported periodically at Board of Public Works meetings that, in comparison with private contractors for the service, using the municipality's equipment and labor to collect residential trash was more economical.
But now, Rath is not sure; Veolia's move away from the county landfill may have changed all that.
Rath said the city has several options. It could continue municipal services for residential trash pick-up; contract for the services of a private company, like Veolia; or use a combination of both by using Veolia's waste transfer station in the city.
"We're looking at not only the costs involved, but the service - whether service will be reliable or how much control we would have over that," he said.
Labor costs figure heavily into his consideration.
Earlier this month, Veolia offered the city use of its in-town transfer station on 7th Street West where the company sorts garbage and recyclables. The offer could save the city about $2.60 per ton, according Veolia's area manager, George DeVries. Veolia currently handles about 30 to 35 tons of waste per day at its Monroe transfer station, he added.
With the county fee dropping its fee by $2 per ton, the savings now is not as significant.
But the city would reduce travel time by taking Veolia's offer. One trip to the county landfill to dump the trash can take up to 90 minutes of city employees' time, according to Rath, and several trips are needed on trash collection days.
Rath must also figure in the council's consideration of replacing worn-out garbage trucks with new trucks that use a mechanical lifting arm to pick up and empty rubbish bins.
The newer type of trucks allows one person to collect the rubbish left for curb-side collection needing to leave the cab, which could save labor costs, increase employee safety and decrease potential liability for injuries, Rath said.
Rath believes the employees' labor saved on the trash routes could be put to use better in other areas of the street department. But the initial investment for the trucks and special trash bins has stalled the plan for about two years.
"Of course, then you have the political feasibility," Rath said. "One way may make all the sense in the world, but if the people don't want it, what do they want?"
Rath is approaching trash collection services and continued use of the landfill as two separate issues, which makes each issue more manageable in a public forum.
But they are explicably connected to each other, as well as to the future of the county landfill and Monroe's partners in the facility.
Reverberations in perpetuity
Without Veolia's contribution to the total county mass, the weighted percentages of use for Monroe and all the other member municipalities, whether they contract with Veolia or not, are expected to change.
But nobody in the city or at the landfill will say yet how much those numbers will change, at least not until the end-of-the-month calculations are done.
This leaves Rath with a big hole in his calculations for the future cost of the city trash services.
What Monroe and every other member municipality can count on is a perpetual cost.
Through the original process of creating the county landfill facility decades ago, the municipalities each own a share of equity in it, which binds them to certain responsibilities - the monthly maintenance costs and a lesser amount for perpetual care of the landfills that are shut down.
The county currently has two landfills which are under perpetual care, which includes quarterly tests of water and methane gas emissions. The City of Monroe pays about $700 per month for its portion of the costs.
The county's transfer station near Brodhead, commonly referred to as the landfill, has been forced to lay off one employee and leave a second position vacant, for lack of work.
Garbage and recyclables are sorted at the facility, with the trash then taken to a landfill in Janesville.
The decrease in usage came suddenly on Monday, Dec. 26, when Veolia Environmental Services, a private waste collection company, started redirecting its collected waste from Green County to a private landfill near Darien.
Veolia holds numerous municipality service contracts, as well as private contracts in the county, which is why that company's usage was so high, according to the county's facility manager Randy Thompson.
The Green County Solid Waste Management Board discussed the situation Thursday, and, because of the decreased labor costs, members agreed to lower user fees by $2 per ton, according to Nate Klassy, board chairman.
But board members want to hear from users of the facility before taking any other actions. Five-year agreements between the facility and its municipal users will come due for renewal in 2013.
The meeting is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Green County Courthouse. Municipalities were being contacted Friday to ensure good attendance. The meeting will be open to the public.
In the wake of losing Veolia
If the county facility's loss of business and revenue created a simple reduction in need and operation costs, the solution to keeping the facility open might be as simple as downsizing.
But the billing process and the user agreements with many of the municipalities in the county hinge on the amount each entity uses of the landfill, including the amount any private contractor or individual contributes to the facility.
Veolia's pulling out of the county waste processing services has set off a cascade of changing variables for all the entities involved.
In one sense, the Green County waste processing and recycling facility operates much like a utility. The county does not levy taxes to operate the facility; instead, user fees are charged.
Users, whether a municipality, private company or an individual, pay their own user fee, called a tipping fee. The tipping fee will be billed at $45 per ton of trash under the newly reduced rate.
But the facility also operates like a weighted partnership. Each of the 15 municipality members of the facility pays a portion of the monthly costs for upkeep and maintenance, calculated from its percentage of its contribution to the total trash that month.
The percentage is based on the weight of any trash brought in from that municipality, even by private contractors and individuals.
For example, trash from the City of Monroe typically makes up about 55 percent of the county facility's total waste amassed each month and, thus, the city pays 55 percent of the total maintenance costs.
The trash Veolia collected in Monroe, mostly commercial or industrial, was included in the city's weight calculation, up until the end of 2011. Last year, the city of paid an average of about $5,800 per month for maintenance costs.
Whether the county facility can continue to operate may depend heavily on whether its biggest user, the City of Monroe, continues to use it, said Klassy Friday.
Monroe's conundrum
Whether the City of Monroe continues to use the county facility depends upon an abundance of moving statistics and opinions, according to Phil Rath, Monroe city administrator. Rath is currently looking at the multitude of variables, with plenty of unknowns, to determine the city's best course of action for future trash collection.
In the past, the city street department has reported periodically at Board of Public Works meetings that, in comparison with private contractors for the service, using the municipality's equipment and labor to collect residential trash was more economical.
But now, Rath is not sure; Veolia's move away from the county landfill may have changed all that.
Rath said the city has several options. It could continue municipal services for residential trash pick-up; contract for the services of a private company, like Veolia; or use a combination of both by using Veolia's waste transfer station in the city.
"We're looking at not only the costs involved, but the service - whether service will be reliable or how much control we would have over that," he said.
Labor costs figure heavily into his consideration.
Earlier this month, Veolia offered the city use of its in-town transfer station on 7th Street West where the company sorts garbage and recyclables. The offer could save the city about $2.60 per ton, according Veolia's area manager, George DeVries. Veolia currently handles about 30 to 35 tons of waste per day at its Monroe transfer station, he added.
With the county fee dropping its fee by $2 per ton, the savings now is not as significant.
But the city would reduce travel time by taking Veolia's offer. One trip to the county landfill to dump the trash can take up to 90 minutes of city employees' time, according to Rath, and several trips are needed on trash collection days.
Rath must also figure in the council's consideration of replacing worn-out garbage trucks with new trucks that use a mechanical lifting arm to pick up and empty rubbish bins.
The newer type of trucks allows one person to collect the rubbish left for curb-side collection needing to leave the cab, which could save labor costs, increase employee safety and decrease potential liability for injuries, Rath said.
Rath believes the employees' labor saved on the trash routes could be put to use better in other areas of the street department. But the initial investment for the trucks and special trash bins has stalled the plan for about two years.
"Of course, then you have the political feasibility," Rath said. "One way may make all the sense in the world, but if the people don't want it, what do they want?"
Rath is approaching trash collection services and continued use of the landfill as two separate issues, which makes each issue more manageable in a public forum.
But they are explicably connected to each other, as well as to the future of the county landfill and Monroe's partners in the facility.
Reverberations in perpetuity
Without Veolia's contribution to the total county mass, the weighted percentages of use for Monroe and all the other member municipalities, whether they contract with Veolia or not, are expected to change.
But nobody in the city or at the landfill will say yet how much those numbers will change, at least not until the end-of-the-month calculations are done.
This leaves Rath with a big hole in his calculations for the future cost of the city trash services.
What Monroe and every other member municipality can count on is a perpetual cost.
Through the original process of creating the county landfill facility decades ago, the municipalities each own a share of equity in it, which binds them to certain responsibilities - the monthly maintenance costs and a lesser amount for perpetual care of the landfills that are shut down.
The county currently has two landfills which are under perpetual care, which includes quarterly tests of water and methane gas emissions. The City of Monroe pays about $700 per month for its portion of the costs.