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44 Orange County, NC Financial Plan and Rate Study for Solid Waste Enterprise Fund 4.2 COLLECTIONS OF ASSESSED FEE Currently, Orange County budgets for the successful collection of the Solid Waste Programs Fee from 97 percent of the 61,000 assessed properties. The losses from the additional 3 percent not collected translates to 1,830 delinquent properties, or $195,810 in lost revenue annually at a Fee rate of $107 per property. The Solid Waste Management Department could share resources with the Tax Administration Department to collect on the additional 3% of properties. Currently there is an Environmental Enforcement Supervisor and Solid Waste Enforcement Officer on the Solid Waste Staff, in addition to number administrative and managerial positions within the personnel hierarchy. These personnel assets could be utilized to collect additional assessed fee from delinquent property owners, potentially through an incentive system. 4.3 MODIFICATION OF ORGANICS COLLECTION PROGRAM FUNDING STRUCTURE Commercial curbside collection and residential drop -off collection of food and other organic wastes currently cost the Department $80 per ton per its contract with Brooks Contracting. The Department could encourage residents to compost at home to reduce expenditure by the Department and keep the waste closer to its point of origin for direct reuse. The Brooks composting facility is located an hour southeast of the Town of Chapel Hill, approximately 36 miles away. Significant cost is incurred by the contractor to haul the material to the windrow composting site from the point of collection, and then back to the Orange County Landfill so the finished compost can be solid to residents. Efficiencies are to be gained by changing the approach to the commercial collection efforts and bolstering the home composting program already in place. Additionally, the program funding structure could be changed to implement cost sharing by the largest utilizers of the commercial organics collections program, which could bear some or all of its costs. This would shift the burden of paying for the program from the Programs Fee or general fund to the entities that benefit most from the program. County businesses utilizing the program could pay a flat monthly fee or, alternatively, pay according to the quantity of organics disposed through the program. 4.4 MAJOR WEATHER EVENT /STORM DEBRIS HANDLING Currently the Department handles staging, clearing, and disposal operations for the cleanup of storm debris from major weather events such as tornados, hurricanes, ice storms, and major thunderstorms. Funding for these efforts is not provided via emergency allocations from the General Fund, and the Department generally absorbs the costs. Financial resources should be allocated for these non - routine events so that the cost burden is not transferred to the Department. Additional monies may be allocated into a hypothetical R &E fund to cover costs associated with unexpected weather or natural disaster events. 31