4.8. SR 11-13-2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

. 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. 2001 BUDGET COMPARED WITH 2000 BUDGET . The city started its organized residential garbage collection and recycling program in November 1990. Elk River Municipal Utilities collects the garbage fees and remits the money to the city on a monthly basis. The city then makes payments to the garbage collection firms and the RDF plant. The garbage collection program deals only with residential properties of four units or less. The city contract with the garbage haulers expires in October 2004. Currently the city has approximately 4,500 customers. The breakdown of the program shows the collection of approximately 3275 ninety gallon containers, 225 sixty gallon containers, and 700 thirty-two gallon containers, all of which are picked up weekly, and 250 thirty-two gallon containers that are picked up bi-weekly. Recycling material is picked up weekly except for the households that have bi-weekly garbage service. The 2001 garbage collection and recycling program budget is proposed in the amount of $811,350. This is a $33,750 or 4.34 percent increase over the adopted 2000 budget. The garbage disposal fee at the RDF Plant is going down slightly for 2001, and this offsets some of the increase in the customer count. Accordingly, the budget increase is 4.34 percent, while the household growth in the city is more than this rate. It should be noted that two budget line items, the garbage hauler payments and the waste disposal fees, amount to 96 percent of the total budget. This figure is consistent with previous years. . All budgeted revenues, in one form or another, come from customer services, including the interest revenue. In 2000, a county payment was received for the city having an organized garbage collection and recycling program. This payment was a one year program and will not take place in 2001. Over the years, the city has slowly increased its fund balance and, in 1999, received a sales tax refund from the state. The total reserve is now higher than needed and the city is planning to reduce its fund balance over the next few years. In 2001, the city is planning on using $53,500 of the reserve to balance the budget. Use of the reserves is also taking place in order to support the customer rate reduction that was approved in 1999.