CITY RESIDENTS CAN EXPECT INCREASED TRASH FEES

Faced with the burden of complying with state and federal solid-waste mandates, city officials are studying how much -- not whether -- trash fees in Cape Girardeau will increase next year.

Doug Leslie, assistant city manager and public works director, said new landfill regulations will mean higher waste-hauling and disposal costs. Also, closure of the city's filled landfill will cost $600,000 next year and $50,000 annually for monitoring the site.

"We don't have the exact amounts yet," Leslie said. "We're working on that presently. But I think the direct correlation of those substantial expenses would require a fee increase. The situation's well beyond our control."

On Monday the city council approved a contract with Lemons Landfill in Dexter for waste hauling and disposal. The three-year contract with two more option years takes effect Dec. 15.

Under the contract, tipping fee rates will increase about 15 percent in 1994, from $11.50 to $13.25 per ton. The hauling fee will be $92.50 per container.

Later tipping fees will be $13.60 for the second year, $13.95 for the third, $14.30 for the fourth, and $14.70 for the fifth.

Despite the increase, Leslie said he was pleased with the Lemons bid. That's because the Dexter landfill already has been approved for expansion while state regulations are forcing the closure of landfills throughout Missouri.

"Lemons is one of the few approved, complying landfills, particularly in this part of the state," Leslie said. "There was the uncertain cost of operating that landfill under the new regulations, and we knew we were facing higher costs with closure of our landfill.

"Based on that, we were pleased with the bid. It gives us some assurance in the next five years so that we know where we're going."

Because the city's solid-waste service is financed entirely by user fees, any increase in costs on the front end likely will be passed on to consumers in their trash bill.

But Leslie said the full impact of the cost hikes is impossible to project without further study.

"The new disposal and hauling contract doesn't take effect until December, so we plan on making a presentation to the council sometime before the first of the year," he said.

The contract with Lemons Landfill includes an agreement that enables the city to opt out of the contract should the Southeast Missouri regional solid-waste district open a landfill in which the city's required to participate.

But because it takes such a long time to get a landfill approved, Leslie said the clause probably is moot.

"When you're talking about a five-year contract, that's the minimum timeframe to site a landfill and build it," he said.

The city would have been able to save some money on the hauling and disposal contract if the council would have approved a five-year agreement that officials negotiated with Lemons nine months ago.

That agreement would have raised tipping fee rates to $12.50 per ton next year and an additional 50 cents per ton annually through 1998.

Representatives of Continental Waste Industries of Three Oaks, Mich., asked that the contract be bid. Continental recently had bought the Jackson County, Ill., landfill, and company officials said they wanted a chance to bid to haul Cape Girardeau's trash.

When the council agreed to bid the contract, Leslie and other city officials said they feared the bids would come in much higher than the previously negotiated contract with Lemons.

As it turned out, the bid from Lemons was higher, but "could have been a lot worse," Leslie said.