Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
At its April 30 regular meeting, the Po-ahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) raised the annual Green Box usage fee from the current $120 per year to $135 per year. The vote was 4 to 0. Member Jamie Walker was not present at the meeting to vote. The higher fee goes into effect on July 1. They did retain the $3 discount if the fee is paid by September 15.
SWA Chairman Dave Henderson said the SWA received one written comment about the fee which asked that it not be raised particularly for people with camps or vacation homes in the Arbovale section of the county. Member Dave McLaughlin said that if someone can afford a vacation home or a camp, they should be able to afford a $15 a year raise in their green box fee.
SWA administrator Mary Clendenen said it is estimated that the new fee will generate an additional $19,760 in income for the SWA in the next fiscal year. Clendenen also said the SWA’s budget appears to be $16,000 in the positive, however that figure will not hold up because of the additional expenses anticipated in rebuilding the greenhouse, replacing the sand filters and repairing the water treatment system at the landfill, all of which will result in massive unbudgeted expenses which remain unknown at this time. One estimate they received for purchasing sand to replace the sand in the filters was $54,000, and they are not sure if that price includes delivery, and it does not include the cost of removing the old sand via a vacuum truck, which must be done before new sand can be added. They said that the greenhouse needs major repairs, and it has to be moved out of the way to replace the sand filters.
Clendenen also said in her financial report that the SWA has $282,000 in its unrestricted funds account, which will have to last them until the landfill closes, which is estimated to be in the fall of 2026. She said the above repairs to the landfill plus more expensive engineering report costs will have to come out of that fund, too. She said after the landfill closes, there will be no more tipping fee income, and basically the only income will come from green box fees.
The SWA members also voted to go to AETNA Plan C for their employees PEIA health benefits, the same plan the county commission chose. It has higher deductibles for employees and their families, but the SWA will have a Health Reimbursement plan which will pay most of those, and the SWA will keep any unused money from that reimbursement plan at the end of the year.
There was also a discussion about the future of solid waste collection in the county after the landfill is closed. Bill Flenner and Keith Fout, Utilities Analysts for the West Virginia Public Service Commission, contributed to this discussion.
They were asked by Clendenen if the SWA could use money from their construction escrow to help with the transition to a transfer station, or compactor sites or to a direct delivery program from green box sites to another county’s landfill, or if it could be used to pay the approximately $50,000 in unbudgeted engineering expenses they have recently incurred. Flenner answered that it is unknown at this time if there will be enough money in their closure escrow to pay for the landfill closure and ongoing post closure expenses, and if not, that money will have to come out of their construction escrow, so a definite answer is not available right now. Post closure cost is estimated to be about $75,000 a year for 30 years to sample and maintain the quality of the water at the landfill site, and in 2021 the cost for closing the landfill was estimated to be $1.8 million, but that has probably gone up due to inflation.