CITY FULFILLS SOLID WASTE RULES; OFFICIALS AIM TO RUN SYSTEM AS A BUSINESS

When they embarked last fall on an ambitious plan aimed at accommodating new state solid waste regulations, Cape Girardeau officials knew some of their efforts would be controversial.

But few expected the flood of criticism unleashed against the plan by some Cape Girardeau citizens.

By taking steps to operate the solid waste division as a "business," separate from other city operations, city of~ficials say they've been able to reduce general operating costs. But state and federal solid waste mandates continue to inflate solid waste expenses.

The city last October began a volunteer, community-wide recycling program intended to help Cape Girardeau comply with a state law mandating a 40 percent reduction in the amount of solid wastes going to landfills.

But the program angered some residents who complain that one of the city's twice weekly trash collections was dropped in lieu of a weekly recycling collection.

Along with the reduction in trash collection, the city this year increased monthly trash fees $1.64 from $8.90 to $10.54. Without the fee hike, officials said the city would be forced to operate the service at a $20,000 deficit each month.

Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink said that aside from the state mandates, annual solid waste costs have been cut about $150,000 in the past two years, from $600,000 to $451,000.

Since 1989, when trash fees were increased from $4.85 to $8.90, the per-customer monthly costs for residential trash collection have been cut from an estimated $6.00 to about $4, Stoverink said.

Much of that reduction is attributable to the reduction in weekly trash collection. But other cuts also have been made, Stoverink said.

"In terms of total personnel in the Solid Waste Department, we've got five less full-time equivalent positions in the budget today than we had six years ago," he said.

Also, monthly costs associated with operation of the city's landfill have been cut from $1.12 per customer in 1989, to 57 cents due in large part to the diminished use of the city's nearly full landfill.

Stoverink said the city now only uses the site when the transfer station, which compacts trash to be hauled to a private landfill in Dexter, is down for maintenance and repairs.

"There's an extremely limited life on the landfill, so we're using it extremely sparingly," he said.

The monthly transfer station costs, which include hauling and disposal costs, have increased from $1.44 per customer to nearly $3.

Contractual services at the transfer station have increased from $355,000 to $527,000 since 1989. The bulk of that increase has been in the hauling and disposal costs. Lemon's contract accounts for about $480,000 of the total contractual costs.

The city has little control over those costs, said Stoverink, particularly since the increases merely reflect the added expense of proliferating landfill regulations.

"Hauling it 50 miles is expensive, but his charges to us are not out of line with real costs," he said.

The total cost to haul Cape Girardeau's trash to Dexter is about $5 per ton, which translates to about $125,000 annually a significant cost, but not enough to account for the $1.64 monthly increase in trash fees.

But the city also started its city-wide recycling program, at a monthly cost of $1.87 per customer. Add to that an additional 79 cents per month for the city's leaf collection program also mandated in Senate Bill 530, and the costs begin to add up, Stoverink said.

Another cost that's been added since 1989 is interest expense on debt to the city's general fund. In the past, the city borrowed from the general tax fund to subsidize the solid waste program. By moving the interest expense on the loan to the solid waste division, another 41 cents were added to customers' monthly bills.

Although the number of full-time solid waste employees is less today than in 1989 due to the city's decision this year to reduce from three-man to two man crews on trash collection trucks total payroll costs increased significantly last year.

According to the city's budget, solid waste payroll costs, which include salaries and benefits, increased from $607,000 in 1990-91 to $720,00 last year.

Stoverink said part of the increase was attributable to accounting changes, in which billing and customer service salaries were allocated to solid waste, adding about $60,000 to the budget. An increase in workers compensation insurance premiums added another $40,000 to the solid waste budget, he said.

The remainder of the increase was due to salary hikes, primarily for trash truck drivers and loaders.

"With our new pay plan we implemented two years ago, we found some areas where salaries were low based on market surveys," Stoverink said. "Solid waste was one of those areas where we had pretty good pay raises."

Stoverink said it's ironic that one of the complaints some residents have lodged against the city is that it has failed to operate the solid waste division as "a business."

"That's exactly what we've done," he said. "It is entirely accounted for in accord with the same accounting principles a private business would use.

"Where we're at now, we have put all the costs associated with solid waste into the solid waste division's budget."

Some citizens have urged the city to bid trash service with the hopes that competition and private enterprise would keep solid waste costs at bay.

But the city prior to adoption of the $8.90 monthly fee in 1989 solicited proposals from several private companies for operation of the solid waste program. The cheapest proposal, from Browning Ferris Industries of Southern Illinois, would have cost residents $9.41 a month.

Stoverink said the recent $1.64 increase over the 1989 rate represents only slightly more that an inflationary increase based on the Consumer Price Index.

"We're criticized sometimes for the rate increases the city proposes, but when you enter into a five-year contract with a private company, it's very difficult to get that without building in some type of inflation increase," he said.

"At 5 percent CPI, that's about 45 cents a year. Our increase was $1.64, which is pretty close to inflation, although the only thing in the increase that reflects inflation is the pay raises to employees."

Stoverink said the addition of recycling, leaf collection, cash-flow financing of debt and allocation of administrative costs have all added to solid waste costs.

"If you were comparing apples to apples here if we weren't reallocating any costs and didn't have Senate Bill 530 to deal with in terms of yard waste and recycling we wouldn't need a rate increase," he added.

"We would have started with a rate lower than the private sector three years ago and operated the trash for three years without a rate increase. That's primarily because we run it like a business we've reduced personnel and increased productivity."

Stoverink also said residents need to be prepared for at least inflationary-type fee increases in the future. "There obviously are going to continue to have to be rate increases, unless people in this community are willing to deny pay increases for guys on the trash trucks."

On Monday: Cape Girardeau makes strides with its recycling ~efforts.