I thought I was done writing about the problems at the Archuleta County Landfill, when I posted Part Four yesterday. Some suggestions had been made during the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners’ work session last Tuesday, such as increased fees, and more efficient operations.
But, as County Commissioner Ronnie Maez is fond of reminding us, government moves slowly. I’ve been writing about the solid waste issues here in Pagosa for the past 18 years, and many of the problems discussed on Tuesday were already problems 18 years ago.
I want to share a few more bits of information, however, because the owners of Elite Recycling and Disposal, Heidi and Chris Tanner, showed up at the BOCC meeting yesterday to express concern about potential changes to the solid waste operations and to clarify some possible financial misunderstandings.
Heidi Tanner had sent some clarifications, also, to the Daily Post, about the processing of recycled trash, and we posted her letter to the editor yesterday. She shared essentially the same concerns yesterday
Chris Tanner stepped up the podium to encourage the BOCC to be careful about raising landfill fees.
Here’s a quote from Road and Bridge Manager Kevin Pogue at last week’s work session. Mr. Pogue is currently managing the County Landfill operations, and he was referring to some documents he’d provided to the commissioners, comparing landfill fees in Cortez to prices in Pagosa.
Mr. Pogue is very new to the job, and apparently didn’t fully understand the numbers he was presenting to the BOCC?
“And on the back of this sheet, it’s got all the prices per ton, as stuff comes in. And this sheet shows what we are charging. And you can see the difference in prices, here… His price [in Cortez] is $52.40 per ton. And we’re only charging $17 per ton.”
“So one thing that you’ve advised,” Mr. Pogue continued, “is that we treat this like it’s a business. So if you’ve got $10 worth of costs, operation costs, and you’re only charging $7, you’re losing money.”
Commissioner Warren Brown responded. “That’s probably why we’re getting more traffic into our landfill from outside the area, because people are saving a ton of money, because we haven’t kept our pricing where we need to be, to be operationally sound and competitive.”
Chris Tanner, yesterday, tried to clarify the actual situation, from the perspective of a trash hauler.
“I wanted to speak to y’all about landfill rates.” He referred to an article published last Thursday in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN. In that article, he noted, Commissioner Alvin Schaaf is quoted as tossing out the idea of increasing landfill rates to, perhaps, $65.
“I assume that’s per cubic yard? Cubic yard is what you use to measure landfill rates there at the Archuleta County landfill.”
Because our landfill doesn’t have a scale, trash deposits are charged by the cubic yard, instead of by the ton. But we can notice that, in the quote above from Kevin Pogue, he states that the rate charged at the landfill is “$17 per ton”.
Mr. Tanner continued:
“If you were to raise your rates up to $65 per cubic yard, that would cost me $1,300 every time I empty a truck at the landfill. That would make the monthly rate for a 96-gallon trash cart go up to $115 a month. I don’t know about you, but I know a lot of people here in Archuleta County who cannot afford that kind of rate increase for trash service right now, with fuel prices what they are, and runaway inflation, and everything else that’s going on…”
There’s a lot going on, right now.
“And I also don’t understand how increasing your rate by almost four times the normal gate rate would help you with your shortage of landfill space…
“I did check some landfills around the region. Montezuma County, I think, was mentioned in the article. They’re charging $53.91 per ton. Well, if I convert tonnage to cubic yards, that comes out to $17 per yard. Exactly what you are charging right now. So your rate would be $53.91 per ton.
“$56 per compacted ton in Gunnison County. $45 per compacted ton in Saguache County. Chaffee County, $39 per compacted ton.
“You guys are already on the high end of the scale, there, with your landfill rates. So I don’t think raising rates, right now, is a good idea. I think it’s going to put undue stress on our citizens, on our small businesses, and I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t think it’s going to get you where you want to be, on fixing your landfill problems.”
While transcribing Mr. Tanner’s comments, above, I suddenly remembered that, prior to starting the Elite Recycling and Disposal business, he had served for a couple of years as the Archuleta County Solid Waste Manager.
Perhaps he has some ideas about fixing the community’s landfill problems? In case anyone wanted to talk to him about his ideas.