MONROE - The City of Monroe is making another attempt to contract as a member of the Green County transfer station.
The Common Council on Tuesday voted 5-2, on a motion by Brooke Bauman and seconded by Reid Stangel, to approve a revised agreement to send to the Green County Solid Waste Management Board. Aldermen Michael Boyce and Charles Koch voted against the measure.
The city has not been a member of the station since January. The city and its residents and businesses pay non-member prices for trash disposal and other services provided by the station.
City Administrator Phil Rath called the new agreement a working resolution, with a new pricing structure that would set a fixed cost per ton for the station's tipping fee and an added value membership cost, thereby eliminating the fluctuating, end-of-month costs in billing charges.
The tipping fees in the new contract are laid out in increasing amounts over the next three years, up to $52 per ton at the end of 2017. The membership rate is based on the number of stops the municipality makes on its trash collection route. The council set $7 per year per stop as that rate amount.
In exchange, the city would agree to the contract for a term of five years, ending Dec. 31, 2019, and eliminate the termination wording included in earlier proposals.
Rath said the new price structure is quantifiable, calculable and anticipated for budgetary proposes.
"The goal is to have the solid waste transfer station able to balance the costs (of operations) between members and non-members," with nonmembers paying more and extra services still available for citizens to use, Rath said.
Rath calculated the city in the past seven years has been paying on average $133,500 per year for tipping fees and additional costs; last year it paid $166,600 - equal to about $77 per ton of trash.
The $7 per stop membership fee and the new, proposed tipping fee as it increases over the next three years would generate $132,200 in 2016, $137,600 in 2017 and $141,900 in 2018 of revenue from Monroe for the Green County transfer station.
The new price structure "is not about how much we pay, it's just how costs are billed out," said Bauman, who has been a city representative on the Solid Waste Management board. "Membership costs can be reviewed quarterly," she added.
But not all aldermen were so convinced about supporting the new agreement. Boyce wondered why the city would enter into another contract that has no more benefits for the city than it is receiving now.
"The (proposed) tipping fees are about in line with what it would cost us with a vendor (if the city disposed trash at Janesville), said Public Works Director Colin Simpson.
The annual membership fee of about $30,000 is a "powerful tool," Simpson added, to show the added value of keeping a transfer station in Green County and for the convenience of being close for the city and for its residents in town.
Rath said he likes the structure, but recognized that higher tipping fees may mean more private haulers will pull out of disposing at the transfer station. In that case, higher membership rates may be in order.
The new contract also allows the Solid Waste Management Board some leeway to adjust prices after January 2018, up to a 10 percent each calendar year.
"It's good to have a workable contract," to solve problems before they arrive, Rath said.
The city has been two years without a contract, opting to become a non-member this year.
"I think this is a pretty good one (agreement) from the city's point of view," Mayor Bill Ross said. Ross said the agreement makes the rates quantifiable for the city budget process and are "fair to the transfer station board." He recommended the council approve the agreement and send it to the Solid Waste Management Board.
That board meets again May 14.
The Common Council on Tuesday voted 5-2, on a motion by Brooke Bauman and seconded by Reid Stangel, to approve a revised agreement to send to the Green County Solid Waste Management Board. Aldermen Michael Boyce and Charles Koch voted against the measure.
The city has not been a member of the station since January. The city and its residents and businesses pay non-member prices for trash disposal and other services provided by the station.
City Administrator Phil Rath called the new agreement a working resolution, with a new pricing structure that would set a fixed cost per ton for the station's tipping fee and an added value membership cost, thereby eliminating the fluctuating, end-of-month costs in billing charges.
The tipping fees in the new contract are laid out in increasing amounts over the next three years, up to $52 per ton at the end of 2017. The membership rate is based on the number of stops the municipality makes on its trash collection route. The council set $7 per year per stop as that rate amount.
In exchange, the city would agree to the contract for a term of five years, ending Dec. 31, 2019, and eliminate the termination wording included in earlier proposals.
Rath said the new price structure is quantifiable, calculable and anticipated for budgetary proposes.
"The goal is to have the solid waste transfer station able to balance the costs (of operations) between members and non-members," with nonmembers paying more and extra services still available for citizens to use, Rath said.
Rath calculated the city in the past seven years has been paying on average $133,500 per year for tipping fees and additional costs; last year it paid $166,600 - equal to about $77 per ton of trash.
The $7 per stop membership fee and the new, proposed tipping fee as it increases over the next three years would generate $132,200 in 2016, $137,600 in 2017 and $141,900 in 2018 of revenue from Monroe for the Green County transfer station.
The new price structure "is not about how much we pay, it's just how costs are billed out," said Bauman, who has been a city representative on the Solid Waste Management board. "Membership costs can be reviewed quarterly," she added.
But not all aldermen were so convinced about supporting the new agreement. Boyce wondered why the city would enter into another contract that has no more benefits for the city than it is receiving now.
"The (proposed) tipping fees are about in line with what it would cost us with a vendor (if the city disposed trash at Janesville), said Public Works Director Colin Simpson.
The annual membership fee of about $30,000 is a "powerful tool," Simpson added, to show the added value of keeping a transfer station in Green County and for the convenience of being close for the city and for its residents in town.
Rath said he likes the structure, but recognized that higher tipping fees may mean more private haulers will pull out of disposing at the transfer station. In that case, higher membership rates may be in order.
The new contract also allows the Solid Waste Management Board some leeway to adjust prices after January 2018, up to a 10 percent each calendar year.
"It's good to have a workable contract," to solve problems before they arrive, Rath said.
The city has been two years without a contract, opting to become a non-member this year.
"I think this is a pretty good one (agreement) from the city's point of view," Mayor Bill Ross said. Ross said the agreement makes the rates quantifiable for the city budget process and are "fair to the transfer station board." He recommended the council approve the agreement and send it to the Solid Waste Management Board.
That board meets again May 14.