Council reduces landfill fees
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — City Council gave initial approval Monday to reduce fees charged to businesses and residents at the Presque Isle landfill.
“I know we’ll be getting more back from the state — $450,000 or so. What we’ll do with that money is put some back into the reserve account. I think it makes sense to cut back in reserves, and give a break to businesses and the citizens,” said City Manager Jim Bennett.
Maine DEP has a program that pays toward landfill closure and cleanup costs, with the city receiving over $146,000 last fall.
Bennett said based on the decision made recently on demolition debris, “I’d like to reduce the $112.50 coming into the landfill for the commercial rate to $80, and the $150 per ton to $130 per ton for the residents’ fee,” noting that businesses would benefit the most.
Council Chair Emily Smith indicated it made sense to put some of the money back in reserve, since “we spent money from reserve to get this reimbursement.”
Money has been spent from the city’s reserve account in recent years to cover the cost of work necessary to meet closure guidelines. The DEP payments will be used, in part, to recoup some of those funds.
“Right now we’re giving a break to businesses and residents, but eventually we’ll have to replenish our reserve,” Smith said.
Bennett said in 2010 the city “put a lot more money in to subsidize everyone’s trash bill.”
“Overall we’ve done OK, on average. But given this, it’s a game changer. Because of the hard work of Dana (Fowler, director of the Solid Waste Department) and engineers at CES, we’re getting the money we spent back,” said Bennett.
Bennett said money set aside in reserve will likely go toward paving and other projects at the landfill.
“As soon as weather conditions get better, the game plan is to take money out of reserve to make it better out there,” he said.
The city manager said if tonnage increases by no more than 50 percent, everything will be OK. If it goes higher, it could affect the department’s budget. Fowler agreed.
“If we increase tonnage by 50 percent or more, we’d have to look at manpower,” said Fowler.
Bennett told councilors a vote was not necessarily needed.
“In this case, you’re not going up but going down. If you want, however, we could post it and do it next week,” said Bennett.
“Will anyone really have an issue with it going down?” asked Councilor Pete Hallowell.
“My sense is, it’s a savings. As soon as we can deliver the savings, let’s do it,” said Councilor Craig Green. “Why wait a week? The headline for the paper could be ‘Trash goes down in PI.’”
Bennett said if councilors voted affirmatively, they could reaffirm it at next week’s meeting.
Councilor Dick Engels made a motion to approve the change in fees, as presented, with a second from Hallowell. The vote passed unanimously.
City Council will meet for another workshop on Monday, April 20, tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. The public is welcome. For more information, call 760-2785 or visit www.presqueislemaine.gov.
