Assembly to consider rolling back transfer station fees

BIG LAKE — Public outcry over a second garbage transfer station rate increase in a single year has led two assembly members to propose a change.

District 5 assemblyman Dan Mayfield and District 7 assemblyman and mayoral candidate Vern Halter are introducing a resolution that would return the rates to pre-July levels, citing pressure from citizens. Because the measure is being done by resolution, no public hearing will take place on the measure, though residents are encouraged to offer comment during the public comments section at tonight’s 6 p.m. meeting in the assembly chambers, Mayfield said.

Officials upped the rates Jan. 1 to $22 for between one and three cubic yards of garbage at the various transfer sites throughout the Mat-Su Borough. A new set of increases enacted during budget deliberations in March, which took effect in July, increased rates further.

The dump is run through an enterprise fund — an accounting device designed to separate fee-based services from tax-based services — and it’s accumulated $5 million in low-interest debt to the state, said borough solid waste manager Butch Shapiro. Transfer stations themselves run at a $1.8 million operating deficit, and the borough forgoes about $1 million in revenue they would otherwise get if the remote parts of the borough were privatized.

“We move that garbage, and we don’t bill our self,” Shapiro said.

Borough officials also anticipate roughly $10 million in future charges at the present landfill site as a result of closing one landfill cell and opening another, Shapiro said.

Officials typically use the size of the average pickup bed — about two cubic yards — to estimate the rate of increase, Shapiro said. The fee for that amount rose from $22 to $30 July 1. The July increase also establishes separate prices for one cubic yard ($15), and three cubic yards ($45). At the same time, the assembly zeroed out the recycling rates, in an apparent attempt to encourage borough residents to recycle more.

The rates for the central landfill site on North 49th State Street generally cost more than the satellite stations, because the central landfill site uses scales to weight the amount of garbage transmitted, Shapiro said. A 200-pound minimum load costs $15 at the central site, which roughly translates into the one cubic yard used at transfer sites, though the two measures aren’t always comparable, Shapiro said.

“The bottom line is we have no way of charging you by the weight at the transfer sites, and I wish I did because you’re actually paying a little bit more by the weight,” he said.

As a result, waste deposited at the central landfill essentially subsidizes operations for transfer stations. Officials believe they’ll still be able to meet their financial goals without the July increases, Shapiro said.

“We operate at a slightly revenue-positive position at the landfill,” he said. “I believe this current rate will be able to cover the deficit and pay back some of this loan, though not a lot it.”

Mayfield said he sees the increase in starker terms. In 2014, a three-cubic-yard load of garbage cost $16, then jumped to $22 Jan. 1, and now costs $45, almost tripling fees for some users. Mayfield’s assembly district contains the Big Lake transfer site, the busiest in the borough. Borough residents there have no competitive option when it comes to garbage disposal, Mayfield told members of the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce at a Monday lunch meeting.

“If you went to the grocery store, and the cost of a loaf of bread went up 181 percent, you could not buy bread, or at least consider going somewhere else,” he said. “We’re forced to pay what the borough charges for trash disposal.”

A few residents said the increases were difficult. Jo Cassidy told members her daughter Lieba Putnam and son-in-law Troy Putnam had suffered a house fire July 4. When they went to deposit the wreckage of their past life, they discovered rates had climbed.

“It cost over $4,500 just to dump their housing debris,” Cassidy said. “That’s astronomical.”

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.