Posted on July 26, 2020
Washington County and Hagerstown officials were at odds again this week over another financial matter — the city’s request for the county landfill to accept dredging material from the Pangborn Park lake for free.
Waiving the landfill fee for the material would cost the county about $110,000 to $139,000 in revenue if the county charged a discounted rate of $55 per ton. But that wasn’t the only cost the county commissioners discussed Tuesday.
“I’ll address the elephant in the room,” said Commissioner Randy Wagner, bringing up the city council’s recent decision not to make the $405,630 payment to the county for 911 dispatch services.
“Now they’re coming and wanting freebies,” Wagner said after stating he’s willing to talk to city officials about the 911 payment.
County officials also pointed out the city got to stockpile dredging material from City Park lake at Forty West Landfill in 2017 without paying fees that would have amounted to $1.4 million to $1.7 million, and that the city hasn’t taken its residential trash to the county landfill for years.
The commissioners voted 4-0 Tuesday to decline the city’s request to accept the dredging material at no cost. Commissioner Wayne Keefer was absent, on vacation.
Later that day at the city council meeting, City Engineer Rodney Tissue told the mayor and council that being able to take dredging material to the county landfill has always been “looked at as a win-win. We needed to get rid of it” and the county can use it for landfill cover, he said.
Tissue said Thursday he is reviewing at least four other options for the Pangborn dredging material, none of which are hauling it to the county landfill. One or two of those options could involve getting rid of the material for free, he said.
During Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Bob Bruchey suggested seeing if the Northpoint development off Wesel Boulevard could use the material.
Councilman Kristin Aleshire said he found last week’s discussion among county officials about the 911 payment “disconcerting,” as if city residents, who also are county residents, “are somehow a burden on the county system.”
Aleshire said he took offense to that, adding city residents pay county taxes for services.
Commissioners President Jeff Cline brought up the county waiving the landfill fee in 2017. Cline said he wasn’t assigning any blame, but a waiver for $1.4 million in revenue should have come to the commissioners for a vote and it didn’t.
The estimated 18,000 cubic yards of dredging material from City Park would have resulted in about $1.7 million of revenue for the landfill’s enterprise fund at the regular construction materials rate of $75 a ton, Dave Mason, deputy director of solid waste, said Thursday. A discount to $55 per ton would have raised about $1.4 million.
Commissioner Cort Meinelschmidt said he might feel differently about the city’s request if it were a continually paying landfill customer. But the landfill is supposed to be a self-sustaining fund and it was barely covering costs recently, after not sustaining itself during his first year in office, Meinelschmidt said.
The city stopped taking its residential trash to the county landfill nine years ago, Tissue said Thursday. The city switched to Waste Management’s landfill in Upton, Pa., because it was cheaper. Tissue said he probably will bring a three-year renewal option for that contract to the council in September.
Cline said the county lost about $1 million in revenue when the city and the local school board, around the same time, decided to no longer have their trash hauled to the county landfill.
Tissue said he still expects to bring the Pangborn Park contract to the council on Tuesday for approval.
The project, which includes rebuilding the pond’s walls, has been delayed for a long time because of design, permitting and historic issues, Tissue said. The city has been working on it for five to seven years. The plan is for the contractor to start in August, he said.
Mason said a bermed area was constructed at the county landfill to stockpile the City Park dredging material because it includes liquid. The plan was to wait for the Pangborn dredging material to be added to it before mixing any of the dredging product with dirt to use for landfill cover. At the time, county officials didn’t think it would take five years for the Pangborn project to happen. Mason said the City Park dredging material will be used for landfill cover.
Source: heraldmailmedia
