RUMFORD — After eight years without an increase, the solid waste assessment is going up, according to Stacy Carter, the new administrator for the Northern Oxford Regional Solid Waste Board.
At its annual meeting on Dec. 15, the board approved a 6 percent assessment increase in 2021 for the member towns of Byron, Dixfield, Mexico, Peru, Roxbury and Rumford. Carter said the assessment is going to up $50,100 to $885,100.
He said the solid waste budget is $1,083,203, an increase of around $3,000.
“The increase on the assessment is 6 percent, and that’s because of loss of revenue. (The increase is) needed to bridge the gap between the assessment and what the actual budget is because there’s not enough revenue,” said Carter.
“There was a time when we had enough revenue that had come in that would bridge that gap. But because revenue streams have gone down, we needed to increase our assessment to bridge that gap,” he noted.
The increase will take effect with each town’s next fiscal year.
“The first six months, it will remain the same, then that 6 percent increase will take effect so that they can budget for it,” said Carter.
Reggie Arsenault, a Mexico board representative, said there was a discussion about a 6 percent increase each year over the next three years.
“I won’t give a definitive answer on that because we have to look at it each year,” Carter said. “There has been no increase in the assessment over the last eight years.”
He said revenues have been pretty stable, but they weren’t collecting enough each year to offset the difference between the operational budget and the assessment. They had been chipping away at the fund balance each year.
“A financial guideline is to have at least three months of operational expenses in your fund balance, unless something serious happens. And we’ve had that,” Carter said.
“But because of loss of revenue (mostly with recyclables) this year, which was a lot more drastic than in the last eight years, there’s a shortfall, which caused us to increase that assessment,” Carter added. “In order to bring that fund balance up and make sure we don’t go in the red, I think at a minimum, we’re going to have a 6 percent. But if the revenues continue to stay down or to drop even more, it could be more than that.”
He said the funding from recyclables are slowly starting to come back up.
“We’re hoping it may correct itself, but there was a serious decline, and that was because China stopped accepting so much,” Carter said. “So we had to find different outlets. We’re hoping to see some positive change in that to bring the revenues back up.”
One ton in the waste stream going to the landfill costs $56.69.
Through November, Carter said 825.14 tons of solid waste was transported to the land fill compared to 706.88 tons last year.
Carter added that member towns really need to do a better job of encouraging people to recycle. Bins are available at each of the six member town offices.
“Quite simply, all the member towns have to do a better job of getting the word out to their residents to recycle more,” said Carter. “That removes items from the waste stream and not having to pay to get rid of it, and puts it into recyclables that we get paid for.”
He said there’s a lot of residents, during trash day, who are not recycling. “There’s not nearly enough blue recyclable bins out there.”
Two other projects also lead to cost avoidance in the waste stream.
Carter said the apparel collection is going quite well. That is used quite a bit.
There is also the food composting.
Carter said Eric Schmersal, manager of the transfer station in Mexico, reported that the company they have a contract with is not going to continue picking it up at transfer stations.
“They’re still going to do Walmart and other places. He going to contact them, where we’re so close to Walmart, to see if can continue,” said Carter. “But that actually may go away. We don’t get a huge amount of that, but some people do contribute to those bins.”
The board also renewed a five-year agreement this year with Waste Management Services in Norridgewock.
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