By Carol Montana
LIBERTY – The informational town-hall meeting held at the Liberty Senior Center on Tuesday, December 1 was fairly calm until the topic of the solid-waste user fee came up.
County Manager David Fanslau, Legislative Chair Jonathan Rouis, Legislator Jodi Goodman and Commissioner of Management and Budget Joshua Potosek began by explaining to the 50 or so people who attended how the Sullivan County budget is created.
Topics covered included not only the budget, but problems inherent in putting it together including: state pension increases, unfunded state mandates, loss of property-tax revenue due to the recession, and the high cost of tax exemptions.
For its part, the audience asked about furloughing employees rather than laying them off, the possibilities of getting grants, county airport expenses, what’s being done to attract businesses to Sullivan County and why weren’t we able to predict some of these problems.
When it came time to talk about the solid-waste user fee, the tension in the room became palpable. Discussion included new developments in getting rid of solid waste that are not allowed in NYS, repayments of debt, trying to blend the user-fee rate with recycling credits, costs to towns and what they should charge, elimination (or not) of tipping fees, less revenue or none at all for recycling certain plastics, policing to enforce recycling, a pay-as-you-go system per bag, the illegality of burning garbage, the possibility of out-of-county residents bringing garbage to SC, incinerators that produce ash that can’t be gotten rid of and more.
County Manager David Fanslau reiterated the general consensus that the county needs to enforce and step up recycling efforts, “We need to make recycling convenient and effective. People will recycle because they think it’s the right thing to do.”
Sullivan County First Recycling and Refuse owner Shirley Felder Morton reported that she has received some “serious phone calls about certain businesses that don’t use a local hauler.” She’s heard that they can apply to their town supervisor or town assessor under a section of the real-property to render the user fee null and void since they don’t use the service. “I got calls from about 10 residential customers saying either you take our garbage to PA or we’re going with someone else. I’m not buying a truck till I know what my costs are. … please, I’m begging you, my competitors have no clue what their costs are …”
Fanslau said that the “final price price per ton (of solid waste) has not been determined. …”
After the meeting, Felder continued, “It doesn’t hurt my fee structure, because I know what my costs are, it’s like the lumber business, we don’t have as much money to play with, I would be able to adjust them slightly, no more than $8 a home. I have people on the western side of the county, I have seniors and single mothers that call me every three weeks when they have a bag of garbage, and I charge them by the bag. So, how do I cut their bag rate of $6 by the 50% that this county – who has no clue what it means to run a garbage company, because if they did we wouldn’t be in the trouble that we’re in. It doesn’t hurt me.”
Felder actually believes a new fee structure will make it easier for her business. “Now I won’t have to collect $700,000 per year (and that’s before the economy got bad – because I used to give them $896,000. [Mine is] a company that gets no respect from these people – they treat us poorly, they give us a $25,000 credit limit, when I give them that in two days. So it saves me from having to collect that and collect that sales tax on it.”
When asked which of the three solid-waste scenarios – as detailed by Sullivan County management officials – she prefers, Felder answered, “I prefer none of these scenarios, because it hasn’t been thought out enough. How can you say that you’re going with this vendor when you don’t know what they’re charging. Stop spending our tax dollars on a whim, a hope, an area, a range. These are numbers. You add and multiply, it’s a formula. This is a no-brainer and I’m not a numbers person.”
The next informational town-hall meeting will be held on Thursday, December 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the Mamakating Town Hall on Route 209 in Wurtsboro.
Public hearings will be held on:
– Thursday, December 10 at noon in the Legislative Hearing Room, Sullivan County Government Center, Monticello.
– Monday, December 14 at 7:00 p.m. in the Legislative Hearing Room, Sullivan County Government Center, Monticello.
Click on the following link to view the 508-page Tentative Sullivan County Budget for 2010 online.
Click on the following link to view the Solid Waste Fee Evaluation Final Report done by Mid Atlantic Solid Waster Consultants.
Public comment on the budget in general or on specific topics related to the budget can be sent to publiccomment@co.sullivan.ny.us. The comments will be made available to all nine county legislators and entered into the official public record.
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The Catskill Chronicle 
Garbage Topic Heats Up Liberty Informational Meeting
December 7, 2009 by The Catskill Chronicle
By Carol Montana
County Manager David Fanslau, Legislative Chair Jonathan Rouis, Legislator Jodi Goodman and Commissioner of Management and Budget Joshua Potosek began by explaining to the 50 or so people who attended how the Sullivan County budget is created.
Topics covered included not only the budget, but problems inherent in putting it together including: state pension increases, unfunded state mandates, loss of property-tax revenue due to the recession, and the high cost of tax exemptions.
For its part, the audience asked about furloughing employees rather than laying them off, the possibilities of getting grants, county airport expenses, what’s being done to attract businesses to Sullivan County and why weren’t we able to predict some of these problems.
When it came time to talk about the solid-waste user fee, the tension in the room became palpable. Discussion included new developments in getting rid of solid waste that are not allowed in NYS, repayments of debt, trying to blend the user-fee rate with recycling credits, costs to towns and what they should charge, elimination (or not) of tipping fees, less revenue or none at all for recycling certain plastics, policing to enforce recycling, a pay-as-you-go system per bag, the illegality of burning garbage, the possibility of out-of-county residents bringing garbage to SC, incinerators that produce ash that can’t be gotten rid of and more.
County Manager David Fanslau reiterated the general consensus that the county needs to enforce and step up recycling efforts, “We need to make recycling convenient and effective. People will recycle because they think it’s the right thing to do.”
Sullivan County First Recycling and Refuse owner Shirley Felder Morton reported that she has received some “serious phone calls about certain businesses that don’t use a local hauler.” She’s heard that they can apply to their town supervisor or town assessor under a section of the real-property to render the user fee null and void since they don’t use the service. “I got calls from about 10 residential customers saying either you take our garbage to PA or we’re going with someone else. I’m not buying a truck till I know what my costs are. … please, I’m begging you, my competitors have no clue what their costs are …”
Fanslau said that the “final price price per ton (of solid waste) has not been determined. …”
After the meeting, Felder continued, “It doesn’t hurt my fee structure, because I know what my costs are, it’s like the lumber business, we don’t have as much money to play with, I would be able to adjust them slightly, no more than $8 a home. I have people on the western side of the county, I have seniors and single mothers that call me every three weeks when they have a bag of garbage, and I charge them by the bag. So, how do I cut their bag rate of $6 by the 50% that this county – who has no clue what it means to run a garbage company, because if they did we wouldn’t be in the trouble that we’re in. It doesn’t hurt me.”
Felder actually believes a new fee structure will make it easier for her business. “Now I won’t have to collect $700,000 per year (and that’s before the economy got bad – because I used to give them $896,000. [Mine is] a company that gets no respect from these people – they treat us poorly, they give us a $25,000 credit limit, when I give them that in two days. So it saves me from having to collect that and collect that sales tax on it.”
When asked which of the three solid-waste scenarios – as detailed by Sullivan County management officials – she prefers, Felder answered, “I prefer none of these scenarios, because it hasn’t been thought out enough. How can you say that you’re going with this vendor when you don’t know what they’re charging. Stop spending our tax dollars on a whim, a hope, an area, a range. These are numbers. You add and multiply, it’s a formula. This is a no-brainer and I’m not a numbers person.”
The next informational town-hall meeting will be held on Thursday, December 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the Mamakating Town Hall on Route 209 in Wurtsboro.
Public hearings will be held on:
– Thursday, December 10 at noon in the Legislative Hearing Room, Sullivan County Government Center, Monticello.
– Monday, December 14 at 7:00 p.m. in the Legislative Hearing Room, Sullivan County Government Center, Monticello.
Click on the following link to view the 508-page Tentative Sullivan County Budget for 2010 online.
Click on the following link to view the Solid Waste Fee Evaluation Final Report done by Mid Atlantic Solid Waster Consultants.
Public comment on the budget in general or on specific topics related to the budget can be sent to publiccomment@co.sullivan.ny.us. The comments will be made available to all nine county legislators and entered into the official public record.
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