Assembly amends landfill fees

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough passed minor amendments to the landfill fees at their regular meeting earlier this month during discussion of Resolution 21-016, which included the updated Fiscal Year 2022 rates and fee schedules. Assemblyman Mokie Tew moved four separate amendments which would reduce fees at the landfill.

“The enterprise fund is revenue neutral on an operating basis, but it’s not revenue neutral when you include the capital costs,” said Public Works Director Terry Dolan. “The reason we have excess revenue in the enterprise fund right now is so that the next time we have a large capital cost we can pay for it rather than taking out a 20 or a 30 year loan to pay for it.”

Tew’s amendments moved to change the charge per bag of trash to $2, have a flat fee for pickup trucks of $10, and decrease solid waste and construction materials by the ton.

“What we’re doing is passing forward a liability that, somewhere down the road rates will increase even more but it may be appropriate in this specific environment that we do give the public a little bit of a break on the fees and I suppose we would be taking out more of the clean water loans, but the rates are it sounds like quite low so but if we do vote for this just recognize we’re just pushing forward a liability,” said Assemblyman Jesse Sumner.

Dolan said that the large capital costs that the borough must be prepared for include opening and closing cells at the landfill. Dolan said that cell three would become full this summer and require closing, a cost which he estimated at $3-5 million. A fourth cell has already been constructed, and built larger than previous cells, but Dolan estimated the life of landfill cells between five and seven years. Dolan noted that the landfill gas management system was funded from the fund balance rather than from a loan as an example of a large capital expense with short notice that was paid from teh fund balance.

“We’re required by regulation to have that fund to care for the landfill essentially in perpetuity,” said Dolan.

The Assembly took a brief at-ease after Tew’s motion of four amendments to determine the potential costs of the measures. Dolan estimated the cost of decreasing solid waste per ton at $519,000 in projected lost revenue for the first of Tew’s four amendments, and a total cost estimate of $1 million for all four amendments. Out of Tew’s four amendments, two passed and two failed. The amendments that failed kept the charge per bag at $2 and reduced the charge per pickup at a $10 flat fee.

“The landfill about 10 years ago was collecting up around $3 million 10 years. Fast forward to today, they’re collecting up over $9 million so I just think that the landfill can tighten up it’s belt a little bit and help out the citizens to reduce the rate of what they pay to get rid of their garbage so that’s what I tried to do tonight. I’ll continue to and try to do it,” said Tew. “There’s ways to be efficient, but if you’re not forced to be efficient or asked to be efficient why would you.”