Orange County NC Website
•Total Fee Revenue $189,000 <br />• Diffe re nce $-168, 342 <br />Tipping Fees Used to Subsidize Recycling <br />•2004105 $749,537 <br />•2005/06 $859,235 <br />•2006107 $994,332 <br />•2007/08 $847,406 <br />•2008109 $1,042,430 <br />•2009110 $0 -Landfill closes <br />Gayle Wilson said that they are proposing that this fee be held at this rate for a period of five <br />years. <br />Chair Jacobs recognized four school board members that were present and Jan Sassaman, <br />Chair of the Solid Waste Advisory Board. <br />Chair Jacobs said that Gayle Wilson's Solid Waste department won an award for its outreach <br />and education for solid waste. Also, the Planning Department won an award for the Schools <br />Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance. <br />Mayor Foy said that the Town of Chapel Hill has questioned the fee. They know that the fee is <br />needed and that tipping fees would not be enough to cover recycling. The issue is that $75 is a <br />significant fee for residents of Chapel Hill. He said that it has to be cheaper to collect in an <br />urban area than in the rural area, and they want that acknowledged. He said that it seems like <br />the urban areas are subsidizing the rural areas, which he thinks is fine. However, they want to <br />move toward a "pay as you throw" plan, which will generate more recycling and decrease waste, <br />and this plan does not accommodate that. They do not want a fee that provides no new <br />services to the citizens. He said that the Town Board has asked staff to look at this seriously. <br />Commissioner Carey asked Gayle Wilson to verify that the urban areas are subsidizing the rural <br />areas. He was approaching it on the basis that the fee was related to the cost of the services. <br />Gayle Wilson said that the fee {$39} does not cover the cost of the urban curbside recycling. <br />They are proposing that it be subsidized from the surplus disposal revenue. He said that about <br />three years ago, there was a request from the Town of Chapel Hill for the staff to look at the <br />value of the services that the Town specifically received in the context of how much tipping fee <br />expenditures it made to the solid waste fund. The analysis showed that the Tawn of Chapel Hill <br />was receiving service benefits valued at more than four times the cost the Town was paying in <br />surplus tipping fees (after factoring out the portion of tipping fees paid by the Town that simply <br />cover the cost of disposing of the Town's waste -the portion of the tipping fee that exceeds the <br />actual cost of disposal generates "surplus revenue" that is used to underwrite the County's <br />recycling programs}. Other users of the landfill probably are subsidizing the municipal <br />programs. <br />