District running red ink

Different month, same story.

The Jay County Solid Waste District took another loss as monthly claims outweighed income as the district's director predicted the group may not survive financially past October.

"Way down," said director Kay Hayes of the tonnage report, which showed the district collected $11,396.

That figure is just barely more than half of the $22,492.50 in bills paid out.

"By my estimation ... I would say we'll be out of money by the end of the year," Hayes said, guessing maybe by October.

The landfill took in less than 10,000 tons of waste during February and Hayes said even if volume increases during the summer, she didn't think it would be dramatic enough to reach a break-even point.

Hayes even speculated that waste is being transported to a different site instead of the county's landfill.

"I think it's being diverted," she said.

Board members and Hayes briefly mentioned increasing the tipping fee at the landfill, something discussed in prior months, but again passed over the idea quickly. Hayes said she felt an increase at this point might further decrease volumes.

The district's money problems are amplified as well by news that Best Way, which does pickups of recycling containers at county schools, will be increasing its rates charged to the waste district.

The company is looking to increase price for collection by $255.90 a month, not including fuel costs. That would bring the monthly total to $805.

The board considered options to try to reduce those costs including maybe downgrading the size of bins or decreasing the number of collections at sites.

One issue is that the board isn't sure how full those recycling containers are when they are picked up. Not wanting to blindly cut back on services, Hayes told the board she would make trips to the schools to check on usage.

"Let's table this until we get a little more data," said board member Dan Orr.

Even with a downgrade, however, the waste district will likely see a bump up in cost.

"Anyway we're going we're getting an increase," said board president Milo Miller Jr.

"A sizable increase," agreed board member Bill Gibson.

The district is cutting back its expenses as much as it can without ceasing its services, but discussed options that might be available to keep the programs alive.

User fees or a countywide fee for recycling services were discussed, but the board was very cool to the somewhat counterproductive idea of charging more for recycling.

"There's a lot of people out there that would be raising heck about it," Miller said when a countywide fee was floated as an idea.

Members acknowledged that the group's core programs are its annual hazardous materials disposal day and its recycling program and that ceasing those options would make the district obsolete.

Hayes said people in the county are away of the district's financial woes and are questioning her about what the fate of recycling in the county may be.

When asked by Hayes, the board members couldn't offer up more than an honest "I don't know."[[In-content Ad]]