By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The proposed 2020 budget for the city of Hays includes an increase in the solid waste fee for Hays customers.
The last time the fee increased was in 2006 in anticipation of the move in 2007 to a new automated collection system using blue polycarts. The rate was set at $15.20 thirteen years ago and hasn’t changed since then.
“We’re at the point where we’re eating into our reserves every year and that’s not very good for sustainability,” says Toby Dougherty, Hays city manager, “so a rate increase is required.”
The city’s Solid Waste Fund is an enterprise fund, acting like a business.
“Expenses necessitated by the fund are covered by the rates,” Dougherty explained. “The Solid Waste Fund doesn’t get subsidized by the General Fund or any form of taxes. It is solely based off user fees. And right now user fees are not supportive of the overall cost of the fund.”
Dougherty attributes the need for a rate hike to the increase in the cost of living. “Fuel increases, higher hauling and sorting fees for recyclables, salaries, and higher tipping fees at the Ellis County landfill are all factors,” he said.
Revenues from the sale of paper/cardboard recyclables have also been declining, from $63,000 in 2011 to $5,000 in 2018. The city must to pay another entity to take the rest of the recyclables.
“That’s the state of the recycling market. We’re lucky it doesn’t go into a landfill. We’ve gone from getting $60- to $70-thousand dollars a year, to paying $18,000 a year to have our recycling hauled off.”
Paper/cardboard recycling from Hays goes to Tamko in Phillipsburg where it is used in the manufacturing of roof shingles. The rest of the co-mingled recyclables – glass, plastic and aluminum – go to Stutzman’s recycling facility near Hutchinson, where it is sorted and sold to other commercial recyclers.
During tomorrow’s work session, city commissioners will consider a recommended series of annual rate increases over five years rather than one large rate increase.
The recommended rate increases are 15% to $17.48 starting August 2019. Further smaller increases are recommended annually in 2021 through 2024 of 5%, 3%, 2%, and 2%.
Public Works Director Jesse Rohr will present several other options for the commission at their July 18 work session.
Solid Waste services include refuse collection, recycling collection, compost operations, annual alley cleanup, and tree disposal for customers.
Commissioners will also look again at the funding requests in the 2020 budget by outside agencies, including Fort Hays State University city scholarships, Grow Hays, Care Council and Downtown Hays Development Corporation.
The July 18 agenda is available here.
The work session begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Hays City Hall, 1507 Main.