COUNCIL AGAIN TABLES INCREASE IN TRASH FEES

For the second time this month, the Cape Girardeau City Council refused Monday to vote on a proposed $1.46 per month trash-fee hike.

On a motion by Councilman Doug Richards, the council tabled the measure until Jan. 3, when "alternative funding methods" and other "issues related to solid waste" will be discussed.

The action came after Assistant City Manager Doug Leslie made a pitch for the fee hike, claiming the city has little control over increased costs that derive from repeated government mandates related to trash.

But Richards said he'd like the city to consider bidding solid waste services to a private company, an issue that's been debated repeatedly over the past several years.

"We're looking at a 164 percent increase in the past 3 1/2 years," Richards said. "There are major expenses out there, but I'd like to see us open it up and look at some other areas rather than raising fees again."

Leslie said that in 1988, the $4.85 monthly trash rate was subsidized by federal revenue sharing that's no longer available to the city. Since then the rate has been raised twice, to $8.90 and then $10.54.

Leslie said that if the trash fee had been raised only 3 percent annually, the added costs of state and federal mandates would have placed the bill at $12.54 by 1994.

And yet other council members said it might be time for the city to reduce services to compensate for higher costs.

"As much as I hate this subject, there's got to be a point in time when we stop raising fees," said Councilman Al Spradling III. "We need to make some policy decisions as a council whether or not we want to provide a partial subsidy or eliminate services.

"I for one am not an advocate of private trash hauling, but it's time to sit down and discuss this from a policy standpoint."

Councilman David Limbaugh said he also was opposed to approving the proposed fee hike on Monday.

"We're probably left with no other choice, but I'd like to look at it and restudy the issue," he said. "I don't think there will be a down side to delaying it two weeks."

Mayor Gene Rhodes said he thought the council would be able to micro-manage the solid waste budget and come up with sufficient savings to avert a fee hike.

But Leslie disagreed.

"We are living within our budget, but we're daily having these mandates dumped on us with costs beyond our budget," he said.

Leslie said that only $5.31 of the proposed $12 fee would go toward residential trash collection. The balance is earmarked for such things as recycling, trash hauling and disposal and other operations resulting from regulations.

Councilman Mary Wulfers suggested the city consider volume-based billing for trash service -- something Brenda Dohogne, a Ward 2 candidate for city council in the 1994 municipal election, proposed at Monday's meeting.

Dohogne suggested the city reduce its curb-side recycling collection from weekly to twice per month, and look at ways to improve the efficiency of commercial trash collections.

"The city of Cape should also consider alternative means of paying for trash collection," Dohogne said. "It is unreasonable to expect a widow who lives alone or a retired couple with no children to pay the same monthly fee as families do."

Dohogne said Perryville assesses trash fees in proportion to each household's water bill. A Michigan city she's familiar with allows customers to either pay a monthly fee of $13.50 for weekly trash collection, or purchase 10 city trash bags for $15.

"When a customer buys the bags, he buys the trash service," she said. "And filled bags are placed by the curb on designated trash collection days."

But Charles Herbst, a former city councilman who served on a citizens committee that has spent more than a year studying solid waste issues, said such suggestions already have been considered.

"Unless the city considers reducing services, there's no way you're going to be able to lower fees," Herbst said. "This is not just something the staff is dreaming up. This is real.

"You can expect it every 12 to 18 to 24 months from here on."