BPW considers landfill and wastewater fees

Two area business owners dominated conversation during the recent Board of Public Works meeting, on July 26, as each business owner requested time to discuss fee and rate increases at the local landfill and the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Jerry Brown, owner of Brown Pump and Septic requested the board lower the rates for disposal at the Wastewater Treatment Plant to match those of neighboring communities.

Brown has been pumping septic tanks for six years and has dumped into the Kimball pond, as well as in Bridgeport, Chappell and Gering.

“The fees in Kimball right now are double what everybody else is, however, my understanding is you considered doubling that,” Brown said.

City Administrator Daniel Ortiz said that rates for the plant were raised in 2006-07 from two cents per gallon to five.

“I’m not sure why it went from two to five in 2006-07, but when we were looking at the rates I think we were just looking at the overall rates, residential and commercial, and looking at what the plant itself was doing in terms of revenue and expenses,” Ortiz said. “You know the plant has always struggled to generate enough revenue to cover its expenses despite some of the added testing requirements and some of the capital products that are needed out there.”

According to Brown the current rates in Gering are 2.7 cents per gallon and Bridgeport is three cents a gallon while he currently pays five cents a gallon and he will pay 10 cents per gallon locally effective April 1, 2017 with the Board’s passage of Resolution 2016-02 on May 31, 2016.

“The other option I have is to land applicate, which is not hard to do, but it is complicated – more paperwork,” he said. “I have several land owners that will let me dump. My request to the board is to bring your rates in line with Bridgeport and Gering.”

Brown, who dumps 10,000-12,000 gallons a month in the summer, said that to be competitive in northern Kimball and Banner County he needs the City to lower the rate closer to neighboring communities.

“If the rates do go up to ten cents, I will be forced to land applicate, which isn’t desirable to me,” Brown said. “So my request to you is to consider lowering your rates to three cents instead of raising it to ten.”

The board directed staff to draw up a new resolution to reduce the cost back to five cents per gallon.

“To me the only question is do we go back to five cents or stay at ten?” board president Jim Cederburg said.

A similar request was submitted by Conrad and Jerry Morris of Banner County, owners of Pack Rat Disposal in response to adjusted landfill rates with the passage of Resolution 2016-03, also on May 31, 2016 and effective on April 1, 2017.

“Currently we don’t charge anything for private haulers to dump municipal solid waste out there,” Ortiz said.

This fee charged to private commercial waste haulers working for Kimball County residents, would be passed on to their customers who already pay a City landfill fee, assessed through the County.

“It is difficult to argue that County residents are paying a landfill fee,” Cederburg said. “But, here is our situation... we have good evidence that not all of this is coming from Kimball County.”

Morris argued that Jim Schulte, Landfill Supervisor was aware that Banner County waste was being brought into the local landfill, but also that he took an equal amount out of Kimball on his way north again, which was dumped in a different landfill.

“This is the first I’ve heard any indication of your effort to try to balance that,” Cederburg explained.

The Board chose to delay the implementation of a rate increase until Oct. 1, 2016 to allow more time for consideration.

Landfill hours of operation were also discussed, as Morris said that often they arrive to empty the truck and are told they must wait for up to an hour and a half for workers to return from lunch, though the dumping process generally takes less than 10 minutes.

“You are closed in the morning when everyone goes to work, closed during the noon hour when everyone takes their lunch and closed in the evening before they even get off work,” Morris said. “On weekends you get summer sports going and its hard to make it out there on Saturday before noon.”

Cederburg explained that staggering lunch hours can be difficult due to certain regulations, however, he is willing to have that discussion with staff.

Other actions taken by the board:

Donated utilities to the Welcome Center through December 2016 and maintained the cap on the utilities for the Welcome Center.

Tabled discussion requiring deposits from, or suspending, customers who default on Wastewater Treatment Plant or Landfill charges.