Despite the savings, Spring Hill residents are still unhappy about having to pay at all for mandatory recycling.
By WILL VAN SANT
Published November 19, 2003
BROOKSVILLE - The County Commission on Tuesday overhauled the way it pays for mandatory curbside recycling in Spring Hill, cutting the fee participants are charged.
Instead of paying $1.60 a month for the service, provided by private garbage hauler Waste Management Inc. to those in ZIP codes 34606, 34608 and 34609, residents will now pay $1 come Jan. 1.
Irate residents critical of Waste Management's performance and upset about being required to pay for recycling had hoped for more - zero payment or elimination of the program, for instance. The board's action did little to appease such people.
"This is not solving anything," said Jean Marin, who lives in the 34608 ZIP code. "I can't believe it. You are still asking people to pay for something they don't want."
The same contingent of those opposed to the recycling program in attendance Tuesday led commissioners in early August to seek a total elimination of the $1.60 monthly charge.
The proposals developed by county solid waste director Stephanie Burkhardt involved increases to other fees all county residents and businesses pay, not just those living in Spring Hill.
Those proposals also involved considerable reductions that would have been made possible if the county took over billing for mandatory garbage and recycling in Spring Hill and put the charges on residents' tax bills.
The move, Burkhardt said, would have allowed Waste Management to reduce its fees for providing the services because its administrative costs had been eliminated. Under some scenarios with the county doing the billing, residents would have paid nothing for recycling.
County Commissioner Diane Rowden, however, opposed the idea, saying she couldn't support a funding plan that involved Hernando becoming bill collector for a private company.
After it became clear putting the waste hauling charges on tax bills was unpopular with other board members as well, County Commissioner Nancy Robinson asked Burkhardt to run the numbers without the expected decrease in charges from Waste Management.
Burkhardt did so and presented the board with four alternatives.
The one selected increases the county subsidy of residents' monthly payments from 50 to 74 cents. A new $1.50 fee per ton of garbage commercial businesses bring to the county landfill will also go toward further covering program costs.
Both moves will be effective within two months.
Also approved are increases to dumping fees at the county landfill that cannot go into effect until Jan. 1, 2005. The largest of those increases is to the solid waste assessment fee from $62.50 to $63.32.
Cash reserves from the county's Waste Management Division will be tapped to pay for reductions in the monthly recycling charge until the new landfill fees can be instituted.
The net result is that those in the curbside recycling area will now pay $12 a year for the service, rather than $19.20, a decrease of nearly 38 percent.
The board chose to reduce fees in the face of demands from the public to hold a referendum on whether to continue the program. Residents also called for a grand jury investigation into the county's relationship with Waste Management and for putting the recycling contract out to bid.
Aware they could not please all their constituents, board members said they had their eye on short-term fee relief and the long-term benefits recycling will provide by conserving costly space in the county landfill.
Proponents like Burkhardt say the program is working. In June, before the recycling was expanded from ZIP code 34608, Burkhardt said the program recycled 112 tons of material. In October, she said, 362 tons of material was recycled.
If the numbers stay steady, Burkhardt said the county could look forward to making $450,000 in 2004 from selling recyclables.
Calling the mandatory program an intrusive burden on residents, only County Commissioner Robert Schenck voted against Burkhardt's plan.
- Will Van Sant can be reached at 754-6127. Send e-mail to vansant@sptimes.com
