By Nathan Mayberg
MONTICELLO — June 8, 2004 – Legislators may raise the tipping fees at the Sullivan County Landfill from $55 to $75 a ton for regular waste and by more than $75 for a total of $125 per ton of construction and development waste.
Meanwhile, Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Chris Cunningham wants to audit the landfill.
Two large landfill contracts passed through the Financial Management and Public Works Committees on Thursday at the Sullivan County Legislature: $350,000 for Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. and $110,500 for SCS Field Services, which will both be up for vote in front of the full legislature next week.
At a special meeting on Thursday, legislators mulled over proposals that could close the landfill next year after Cell 5 runs out of space, or build Cell 6 so that municipalities can find other alternatives, or continue with Cell 6 and the much larger Phase 2 expansion.
Legislator Leni Binder made a motion to raise the fees, but that bill was put off. Legislator Jonathan Rouis wanted to know if $75 was enough for the county to cover its cost. Commissioner of Financial Management Richard LaCondre estimated it would take $93 a ton at a rate of 112,000 tons a year.
County Manager Dan Briggs said after the meeting that he expected haulers to turn over the spike in charges to the county residents.
Briggs also announced that the county may terminate an agreement with the Town of Neversink which allowed the town to pay only $15 a ton for regular waste.
“We lose money,” stated Briggs on the deal.
County Attorney Sam Yasgur stated that the landfill upstate in Seneca Meadows takes in waste at $32 a ton.
As for Phase 2, county officials said it would cover 35 acres next to the existing cells and reach 100 feet higher.
It is expected to last 18 years.