By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County Commissioner Matt Brooks is working with Landfill Administrative Director Rod Hastings on a proposal to place roll-off dumpsters at two or three locations in the county.
Brooks made the announcement at Tuesday’s commission meeting to give his fellow board members a first look at his roll-off proposal and to answer any questions.
The dumpsters would be used to collect household garbage.
“I think it came off pretty favorable overall. I think it’s something we can handle,” Brooks said afterward.
The announcement of the proposal comes ahead of Thursday’s 6 p.m. county commission public hearing at the Levy County Courthouse to consider adoption of a residential special assessment fee of $116 to fund Levy County Landfill operations.
Commercial rates at the landfill won’t be affected by the residential assessment. They will remain the same.
A study by Government Services Group said the special assessment would allow household garbage to be deposited free of charge at the landfill by residents and commercial haulers. But the question was immediately raised on social media whether it was practical for residents living long distances from the landfill to haul their garbage to the landfill in their personal vehicles, even if it was free. There would be no tipping fees charged for household at the landfill scales under the county’s proposal.
Spotlight conducted an informal survey of its readers and found a majority were more inclined to support the $116 fee if the county provided roll-off dumpsters to make it more convenient for hauling household garbage in personal vehicles.
The preliminary proposal is for roll-off dumpsters to be placed in Yankeetown/Inglis area, the Williston/Morriston area and in the Chiefland/Cedar Key area. The estimated startup cost per roll-off site would be $50,000 to $70,000. The sites would be staffed and the early thinking is that the sites would only open two days a week.
Brooks said it might be possible to stagger the days of operation to save on staffing costs. Areas that were found to have a low number of residents dropping off garbage could perhaps use their site once a week for garbage drop-off, while the busier sites would have two days for drop-offs. This might make it possible for a single individual county staffer to rotate among the sites to save on costs.
It also may be possible in the future to use the roll-off sites for dumping of so-called white goods like refrigerators and stoves or perhaps hazardous materials like empty paint cans and pesticide containers, according to Brooks.
But nothing can be firmed up until the county commission votes to implement the special assessment fee, and that is not a certainty. The acid test is Thursday’s public hearing in the county commission meeting room at the Levy County Courthouse in Bronson. The hearing could be moved to one of the courtrooms if the crowd is too large for the board meeting room.
Commissioner Chairman John Meeks said the $116 special assessment may generate more money than is needed up front to operate the landfill, but he said as costs rise the assessment could absorb the increases without future rate hikes.
Brooks said he doesn’t agree with Meeks that there is more money available in the special assessment that will be needed in the early going. He said he believes the full assessment will be needed to run the program.
One of the unanswered questions is how much residential waste haulers will drop their rates in cities and rural areas if the county allows them to dump household garbage free of charge. Waste Pro picks up garbage for most of the county but its initial proposal for dropping its rates in Williston was rather modest by the standards of some observers in city government.
If the county were to adopt the $116 special assessment fee, would Waste Pro and other haulers substantially reduce their municipal rates? Those haulers would be dumping household garbage free of charge. The question remains unanswered.
The county commission has no control over the rates municipalities charge for garbage service or the rates commercial haulers charge cities to pick up municipal garbage. Commercial haulers themselves should have a good idea of how much municipal household garbage they take to the landfill but none have come forward with that information.
County staff has released little information about the special assessment proposal in advance of Thursday’s hearing. Brooks took it upon himself to meet with Hastings and develop the proposal for roll-off dumpsters independent of the study.
Board of County Commission Regular Meeting Sept. 4, 2018
Posted Sept. 4, 2018
