Orange County NC Website
Cam Hill said that it seems like the most efficient way to collect recycling would be at drop-off <br />centers and it would be less expensive than picking up every week. Gayle Wilson said that the <br />more convenient recycling is, the more people participate. If there were only drop-off sites, <br />there would be a significant drop in the amount of people participating. It would be cheaper. <br />Alex Zaffran made reference to the slide about tipping fees and the reduction in tipping fee <br />revenues and asked if this was including the loss of C&D revenue. Gayle Wilson said that he is <br />including C&D and MSW revenue in this. <br />Alex Zaffron asked if there was a re-evaluation planned of the per tonnage C&D fee that is <br />contemplated in the future as the new C&D facility is opened. Gayle Wilson said that Orange <br />County is already the mast expensive C&D facility in the state. He said that no one charges <br />$41, which is what Orange County charges. In the ten-year financial plan, they assumed <br />incremental increases in both the C&D tipping fee and the MSW tipping fee, but not enough for <br />the overall revenue requirement. <br />Alex Zaffron said that earlier in this process when they discussed moving from a tip fee based <br />structure to a fee based structure, they thought there would be some off-setting reduction in the <br />tipping fees required. He said that his board has not had a chance to discuss this yet and some <br />citizens may feel that they were not told about what was going to happen. <br />Ed Harrison made reference to the "pay as you throw" concept and said that this fee appears to <br />have no relationship to the amount of use of the system. They would like to have an analysis of <br />this. <br />Gayle Wilson said that "pay as you throw" programs are for garbage collection and not for <br />recycling. They can look at making a variable recycling fee work. He said that they have tried <br />to base fees on the cost of service provided. It is out of the County's control as to how much the <br />citizens avail themselves of the service. <br />Chair Jacobs asked if all of the municipalities have adopted the C&D recycling ordinance except <br />Chapel Hill. He encouraged the Town of Chapel Hill to adopt this because it has helped reduce <br />C&D waste. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to the levels of services and said that the Board of County <br />Commissioners has not discussed this. He said that he has to carry everything himself to a <br />convenience center. He said that his level of service is way lower than urban areas and it is not <br />fair to put it in the property tax and have him pay the same amount as urban citizens. He said <br />that the rural citizens are not getting a better deal out of all of this. He said that they need to do <br />abetter job of explaining the different levels of services and why people are being charged <br />different rates. He said that they want to do this in a way that is embraced by the community <br />and not as yet another burden. He appreciates the comments. <br />Mayor Foy said that he does not want this to be set up as a rural versus urban area. He wants <br />to be clear on what the numbers are. He asked how much had to be raised and Gayle Wilson <br />said that the fee would raise approximately $3 million. This is three cents on the tax rate. <br />He is more interested in the ability to increase the recycling and put the cost on people who <br />generate waste and not on people who generated recyclables. <br />