8.1. SR 11-13-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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GARBAGE COLLECTION PROGRAM This budget includes expenditures for service contracts with haulers for the collection of the city garbage and recycling material, payments for disposal of waste at the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) plant, and for the overall administration of the program, including coordination with the Elk River Municipal Utilities for customer billing. 2002 BUDGET COMPARED WITH 2001 BUDGET The city began its organized residential garbage collection and recycling program in November 1990. The garbage collection and recycling program deals only with residential properties of four units or less. The Elk River Municipal Utilities collects the garbage fees for the city. The city makes payments to the garbage collection firms for services and to the RDF plant for disposal. Currently, the city has approximately 4,800 customers. The breakdown of the major users of the program shows: 3330 ninety gallon containers, 450 sixty gallon containers, 640 thirty-two gallon containers, and 230 thirty-two gallon (bi-weekly) containers. Recycling material is picked up weekly except for the households that have bi-weekly garbage service. In October 1999, a five-year contract was entered into between the city and the garbage haulers. This new contract allowed for rates to go down and for a new 60-gallon container option. The financial impact of this new contract and container option was difficult to estimate and both the projected 2001 revenues and expenditures are overstated. The 2002 garbage collection and recycling program budget is proposed in the amount of $820,750. This is a $9,400 or 1.2 percent increase over the adopted 2001 budget. This modest increase is due to high estimates being used for the 2001 budget. The only increase of note in this budget is in the solid waste fees paid to the RDF plant based on the disposal of a higher volume of garbage. The garbage hauler payment and the waste disposal fee amounts to 96% of the total budget. This figure is consistent with previous years. In 2002 the city will again use some reserves to balance the budget and to keep rates at the current level. In 2000 and 2001 the city will have used about $130,000 of its reserves and plans call for using $76,250 in 2002 to balance the budget. This will leave the garbage fund balance at approximately $100,000 by the end of 2002, which is sufficient to meet cash flow needs. Currently, the city household garbage collection and recycling rates are lower than surrounding neighbors. These rates will be evaluated in later 2002 for a possible adjustment in 2003.