Borough hikes landfill rates

PALMER — Mat-Su Borough residents face increased prices, both at local transfer stations and the borough landfill, as one of a pair of measures purportedly designed to increase recycling in the borough.

The rate hikes came among a flurry of amendments offered during the assembly’s budget deliberations May 20, and were approved without objection, according to meeting minutes. Minutes show that assemblyman Arvin moved to increase the per-ton rate to $125. And Assemblywoman Barbara Doty proposed eliminating fees for turning in recyclables.

The pair of changes went into effect July 1, the end of the fiscal year. The increase in the tonnage rate means that residential customers will pay roughly triple what they paid in the past at the borough’s transfer sites — an increase from $2 for two 33-gallon garbage bags, to $6. The increased tonnage rate also means a third bag of garbage over the 66-gallon limit triggers a higher extra fee. Users with more trash pay single cubic yard rates, which is now $15.

Assembly members saw the change as a way to create a strong incentive for recycling, said borough public works director Terry Dolan. The changes caught borough public works staff — who had been asking only for the equivalent of a cost-of-living adjustment for trash based on increases in the tons of trash dumped— somewhat off-guard, Dolan said.

“That kind of surprised me at the time,” he said. “I wasn’t really expecting it, that’s for sure.”

While the incentive for consumers exists to start recycling immediately — more recycling equals less garbage, which equals less money per month for that trip to the landfill or transfer site — infrastructure for recycling isn’t a borough-run business. Instead, the borough is trying to coordinate with two large volunteer groups, Mid Valley Recycling and Valley Community for Recycling Solutions, to find a way to transport recyclables collected at the transfer sites and the landfill to nearby recycling centers.

Where it is difficult for the recycling groups to reach, officials were hoping to coordinate with community councils in adjacent communities, though the results there had been more mixed, Dolan said.

The transfer site rate increases are designed to off-set the actual costs of operating the borough’s assorted sites — which stretch from Long Rifle Transfer Site in Cantwell to the Point MacKenzie Transfer Site — and cost the borough about $3 million to operate every year. Of that, about $1.1 million in coasts come from the heavily-used Big Lake transfer site, Dolan said.

“Essentially, the rates at the transfer site were artificially low, maintained that way, by assembly vote,” he said. “But I honestly think if I had to look internal to public works, there probably wasn’t a good examination of what these costs were.”

Privatizing garbage collection could allow for greater efficiency, but the assembly hasn’t ordered a full review, apart from intermittent interest from the odd assembly member.

“Having a transfer site is probably the least efficient way of collecting waste,” Dolan said. “If you take a look at Talkeetna, for example, where it’s open three or four days per week and everyone can come in and drop their stuff off, well, if you take a look at the way commercial operators do it, they have one man and a truck, and they can do the whole entire area in maybe one day or half a day. You can see how much more efficient it is to come and collect rather than to have a site.”

Nor are residential customers who haul to the transfer sites the lone victims of garbage rate increases.

At least one local company, Denali Refuse, has told customers they face steeper bills as a result.

Residential pickup rates for the company will increase $1.44 per month, to $29.99 per month for a 96-gallon can.

“The ‘good news is’ our new rates are still lower than that national company now,” the company website reads. “We appreciate all of you in the Valley who believe in supporting local business.”

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