Solid waste issue looms for council
Due to what would have been an unusually light agenda, the Maryville City Council has cancelled its regular session originally scheduled for tonight at City Hall.
City Manager Greg McDanel said Friday a combination of vacations, busy summer schedules and looming issues likely to crowd the council docket later this month all contributed to the decision to scrub the meeting.
The city’s five-member governing board will go back to work on Monday, June 22, when it will gather in chambers for a 5:30 p.m. study session with regard to the ongoing deficit that has plagued the municipal solid waste transfer station for the past several years.
That open meeting, to which local garbage haulers are being invited, will precede the council’s regular session set for 7 p.m.
In theory, the transfer station, where solid waste is loaded onto trucks that haul it to an out-of-town landfill, is supposed to operate on revenues generated by user fees — referred to as tipping fees — charged per ton of waste.
Cities commonly adopt such “enterprise fund” schemes to pay for services like garbage disposal and water/sewage treatment because they force individuals and businesses who use those services the most to bear most of the cost.
The problem with the transfer station is that competition from the private sector has forced the city to reduce tipping fees while facing a steady decline in tonnage. In fiscal 2015, the transfer station, which costs around $370,000 a year to operate, required a $109,000 subsidy from the General Fund.
Several weeks ago, the council heard a staff presentation outlining several options for getting the transfer station back in the black. Proposals on the table include municipalization, meaning that the city would either conduct trash collection itself, or, more likely, contract with a single private hauler following the submission of competitive bids.
Currently Maryville residents get their garbage picked up by any one of a half-dozen commercial haulers, and McDanel has said offering the city’s garbage business to a single vendor would both eliminate the existing open market and open the possibility of lawsuits.
Other proposals for getting the transfer station on fiscal track include “put or pay” agreements that would require haulers to meet minimum tonnage obligations and pay for any shortfalls; adding a solid waste user fee on residents’ water bills, or, conversely, tacking a surcharge onto the license fee paid by haulers; or simply closing the transfer station altogether.
The last option would still leave the city facing a considerable expense, since the state Department of Natural Resources charges Maryville $30,000 a year for monitoring the now-closed landfill the transfer station was built to replace. DNR requires such monitoring as a precaution in the event of gas or groundwater leakage.
In other upcoming city business, council members are scheduled to attend a far less controversial gathering later this month — a “block party” and ribbon cutting celebrating completion of the $1.9 million West Fourth Street corridor streetscape project.
Co-hosted by the city and Northwest Missouri State University, the event is scheduled to take place from 6-8 p.m. Monday, June 15, in the vicinity of Fourth and Buchanan.
A complimentary hamburger or hot dog with chips and a drink will be served to the first 400 guests. Attractions are to include face painting, inflatables, fire and police vehicle displays, prizes and giveaways.
