Commission approves new fees for county's C&D landfill
By Charlene Sims, Journal staff
MOUND CITY – Residents and businesses taking construction debris or tires to the landfill will see a new fee list when they enter the landfill. The Linn County Commission passed a resolution approving the fees at its meeting on Monday, Sept. 28, however commissioners initially approved the rates a week before without putting the fees in resolution form required by state statute.
The fees for uncut passenger tires up to 20 inches have decreased while there is now a charge for tires that have had their sidewalls cut out.
The fees for uncut 20 inch passenger tires is $250 per ton which translates out to be about 0.125 per pound. The tires will be weighed on the scale. The website tubetyre.com says that passenger tires can weigh 15 to 30 pounds. So the price for passenger tires could range from $1.87 to $ 3.75.
But the cut tires are no longer free to dump and are $150 per ton which is 0.075 per pound. That makes 15 pound to 30 pound tires, $1.125 or $2.25, respectively. While the tires need to be weighed on the scale, driving a full load on and coming back to weigh the empty load, employees have suggested that this might be easier than trying to count a trailer with a load of 50 tires.
There is a higher charge for all-terrain and XXXX tires.
Construction debris (C&D) prices for in-county residents have stayed the same at $35 per ton, but for loads 1,000 pounds or less the fee is $15. Any weight more than a 1,000 pounds will be charged at $35 per ton.
There is a new fee on the chart is for C&D disposal by out-of-county residents. Before residents without a Linn County drivers license, Linn County license plates, or proof of owning property in Linn County were turned away. Now, those residents can dump for $45 a ton or $20 up to 1,000 pounds.
Several residents were confused about the prices on the fee chart when the commission approved them at Sept. 21 meeting. When people were questioned about the price of a tire when they viewed the fee chart ,which was posted at several repair shops across the county, they had no idea how much it would cost them to take a tire to the landfill.
One repair shop owner said that this confusion could lead to people start once again dumping tires in the ditches around the county.
The actual change came about on Aug. 24, when commissioners approved the fee chart that had been presented to them by Public Works Administrator J.D. Handly on Aug. 17. During both meetings, the changes in the fee numbers were not mentioned or discussed in the meetings.
At the Aug.17 meeting, Handly had included in the commissioners packet a proposal for a new fee schedule. Handly told the commissioners that there were quite a few categories on the old fee chart that are no longer used at the landfill.
“They’re from years past. We are probably going to remove them out of the system,” said Handly. “Reduce it down to do what we actually do out there, and I also included Bourbon County (fees) for comparison. If you want to make a decision on this today by all means, if not, I just wanted you to have the information. I would like to update our rates for the proposal that I gave you in the packet. If you have any questions on that, I’d be glad to try and answer them.”
“The main thing as far as what spurred this is the out-of-county dumping that’s happening” Handly said. “In my opinion as your director, I think that those folks need to be paying. That was the main spur for the proposal and there’s a few other things that dictated that too.”
Johnson asked, “How do we find out where it is coming from basically?”
Handly answered, “So you know years ago when you went out there you had to present your drivers license. You either had to have a driver’s license with a Linn County address, a Linn County license plate or you could bring in proof of property ownership, which I had to do one time personally.
“I had to go get my deed to some property that I own and brought it and then they let me dump. I think that those guidelines have become a little lax.”
Commissioner Jim Johnson asked how the county could control people that were bringing in trash for other people.
“In my opinion, if they’re contractors, that’s commercial so they are going to fall under those rates,” Handly said. “Again, you don’t have to make a decision on this today.”
“There is one specific line item we need to discuss,” he added. “I’m not going to do that under open session. We need to do that under attorney-client privilege in executive session if and when you want to talk about these rates next week.”
At the Aug. 24 meeting, Handly told the commissioners that it (the new fee chart) was “pretty simple. Really just us cleaning up stuff that there’s a lot of categories down there that are not utilized anymore.”
Handly added, “The biggest change would be segregation the in-county out-of-county stuff. In my opinion the landfill is for the use of residents of Linn County. Need to be property owners here.”
Commission Chair Alison Hamilton asked if that was stated anywhere and said, “I’m OK with rates changing.”
Handly said that the the county could come up with a public statement.
Hamilton said that people needed to see a sign posted when they drive in.
Without any further discussion, clarifying how the fee chart would be understood by the public, Commissioner Jason Hightower made the motion to approve the new landfill fee schedule. It was approved unanimously, but no new resolution was voted on and no vote or mention was made to post it in the newspaper. At the Aug. 28 meeting, Handly gave the commissioners a resolution to approve and sign because Linn County Clerk Chasity Ware had told him the fee schedule needed to be in a resolution format. It was approved by the commissioners.
In a phone call with Handly on Thursday, Sept. 24, he explained that tires would be weighed on the scale and would be charged by the pound. To reach the pound number for passenger tires $250 needed to be divided by 2,000 (pounds in a ton) which comes out to 12.5 cents per pound.
He also clarified that the $15 for 1,000 pounds or under was to accommodate in-county residents who came in with small loads. However, anything over 1,000 pounds would be charged at the $35 per ton rate.
A copy of the resolution with additional changes:
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