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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: January 27, 2003 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. <br />SUBJECT: Introduction to Solid Waste Alternative Financing Issues <br />DEPARTMENT: Solid Waste Management PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Draft PowerPoint Slides <br />Notebook with Solid Waste Alternative <br />Financing Background Materials <br />provided to SWAB <br />(under separate cover) <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Gayle Wilson 968-2885 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To provide an introduction/reorientation to the Board of Commissioners regarding <br />the need for supplemental financing for the solid waste enterprise fund and the options being <br />considered to provide additional funds in FY 2003-04 for existing and future solid waste <br />programs and services. <br />BACKGROUND: Environmental stewardship has been a high priority goal for the Board of <br />Commissioners for many years. Among other notable examples has been the goal of reducing <br />per capita disposal of solid waste by 61 percent by the year 2006. Orange County recently <br />became the first of North Carolina's 100 counties to achieve the State's goal of 40 percent per <br />capita solid waste disposal by 2006. The County has developed and implemented a wide <br />range of effective recycling programs that led to this achievement. The FY 2002-03 budget for <br />recycling is about $2.5 million, almost all of which is funded by tipping fees generated from <br />disposal of mixed solid waste and construction and demolition waste. Reduced solid waste <br />disposal has led inevitably to the need to identify and implement other sources of revenue to <br />underwrite the County's solid waste enterprise fund, particularly for recycling programs. <br />Substantive discussions of the need for solid waste alternative financing have taken place <br />intermittently since 1998. The Landfill Owners Group (LOG) formed an Alternative Finance <br />Committee in February 1998. This Committee performed extensive evaluations of financing <br />options, but disbanded in early 1999 prior to reaching a conclusion or drafting a final report, as <br />LOG members turned their collective attention to the priority task of resolving the future <br />governance of solid waste management throughout Orange County. In 2002, the BOCC <br />assigned to the Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB) the task of evaluating options for providing <br />alternative financing to the enterprise fund. The SWAB is currently preparing a final report of <br />their findings to be presented to the BOCC within the next few weeks.