Robert Lefebvre of RL Waste said the waste disposal rate hike would hurt small businesses like his and his customers.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council on Tuesday night approved raising trash disposal rates and the new public arts commission.
The six members in attendance passed the ordinance for the arts commission to a second reading and to be published with the minor amendments to deal with three typos and a questionable word pointed out by Councilor Eric Buddington. Councilors Jennifer Breen, Nancy Bullett and Wayne Wilkinson were absent.
"It's spent several substantial meetings in the General Government Committee," said Councilor Kate Merrigan. "The solicitor worked on the language and we got the draft today."
The commission has been under discussion for some months with the final version including a seven-member voting panel consisting of five experts in relation to art and architecture and two members of the general public. The mayor will be the appointing authority with the council's confirmation.
While the much-discussed commission was passed easily, hiking the rate for waste disposal a half-cent a pound led to complaints from residents and a local waste hauler.
The Public Services Committee after several meetings determined to raise the rate in an effort to make the transfer station revenue neutral. The rate had not been changed from $80 a ton had not been raised since 2008, despite the council approving an increase in 2009.
The committee had initially considered eliminating acceptance of commercial waste in light of the opening of a major commercial transfer station opening in Pownal, Vt., but decided that was too drastic a move at present.
"We can cover the costs so it isn't a burden on the tax rate," said Councilor Joshua Moran, the committee's chairman. "We still need to be sensitive to the needs in the community ... I think this is status quo with the accommodation to address our costs."
The cost will be $94.39 a ton; bags will be $2 and $1. Stickers, which go into a separate capital account for transfer station repairs, will remain the same at $60, including two bags.
The city lost about 30 percent of its tonnage with the opening of the Pittsfield co-generation plant and is expected to lose a significant amount to TAM in Pownal, which can negotiate prices with companies that the city can't. To offset any losses, the station can reduce hours and use the workers on other Department of Public Works projects.
"As for the price going up to $94 a ton, I'm against it and so are the other waste haulers. Ninety-four dollars a ton, that's an 18 percent increase to us," said Robert Lefebvre of RL Waste, a local hauler. "That's substantial to small businesses. ... It's going to hurt us big time.
"To go up on the waste haulers and the people we serve in this community, I think it's the wrong thing."
Lefebvre said the estimates given on how much weight trash bags purchased through the city could hold were way off and that they often weighed far more. to
"Who said we have to make a profit on this? We have to make a service to the city," he said.
John Barrett III, former mayor and city councilor, also attacked the calculations, saying the numbers used to calculate the rate were "way off base."
"What is happening here is unconscionable," he said, adding that the transfer station had been kept going as "economic development" and had helped keep costs down to keep jobs in the city and surrounding towns.
He insisted the transfer station was a "money maker" for the city and chastised officials for not speaking to former employees.
Mayor Richard Alcombright and Administrative Officer Michael Canales said the rate calculations were basic math looking at the cost to operate the transfer station now and the tonnage of waste being shipped out.
As it is, transfer station revenues barely cover the cost to dispose of the 12,000 tons of waste that were taken in last year. Adding in utilities, salaries, state requirements and other costs, it's running a deficit of around $370,000.
Canales spot checked a couple days and found one day the city took in $191 net but the next day was in the red $119.
The administration's argument is that North Adams taxpayers are subsidizing the cost for nonresidents to dispose of waste. A third of the stickers are sold to nonresidents and haulers bring trash from around the region.
"Non-residents pay less to get rid of their waste ... they pay for the bags and they walk a way from it," Moran said. "We're not looking to make a profit, we're looking to make it neutral."
Canales said the added cost is expected to be about $46 more a year for the average family, but by recycling more, that should drop considerably.
Alcombright said the transfer station in the past had made money but it no longer was. If the council did not wish to raise the rate, he would have to add $300,000 back into the city budget.
"We're trying to sustain a service in the city," said the mayor. "The costs to run that station are not evenly shared by the communities contributing the trash. ...
"We are losing $300,000 as of this year. ... We either are going to lose a bunch of money or we're not. ... Yes, it is an 18 percent increase ... We're trying to find ways to balance our budget and this is one way of doing it."
The council unanimously voted to send the ordinance to a second reading and publication.
In other business, the council approved a resolution endorsing a new loan agreement with U.S. Housing and Urban Development on a note used to refurbish the former Sprague Electric Research Building. The note was issued to the city but is being paid by Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, which leases the building to the U.S. Social Security office and Northern Berkshire District Court.
The new note reduces the rate from about 5 percent to closer to 2 percent, saving the museum about $260,000 over the final 10 years of the note. Mass MoCA is also paying the $8,375 filing and paperwork costs.
The council also approved a secondhand license for Sanford & Kid.
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Robert Lefebvre of RL Waste said the waste disposal rate hike would hurt small businesses like his and his customers.
