Title
Solid Waste Management System (B)
This item involves a request for the Commission to hear a presentation on the status of the Solid Waste Management System as it relates to the current solid waste disposal and future solid waste disposal options available to the City. This discussion will provide the City Commission with background information in preparation for the Joint City/County Commission meeting regarding Solid Waste scheduled for March 30, 2006.
Explanation
The City of Gainesville entered into an Interlocal Agreement with Alachua County for Solid Waste Disposal on May 12, 1998. This agreement obligates the City to require its contracted residential solid waste hauler to deliver all acceptable waste, collected from within the City to the County's designated facilities. The agreement ends September 30, 2007. In 2004, the City amended its agreement with the County to pay $44.00 per ton with an annual CPI adjustment for the remaining term of the Interlocal Agreement. The current tipping rate is $45.50 and is anticipated to reach $50.00 per ton by 2009.
The City's solid waste rates were adjusted in 2003 in anticipation of the new collection contract with Waste Management, Inc (WMI). This adjustment was the first since 1997, at which time the rates were actually reduced. Although the residential solid waste program operated in a deficit, the City utilized fund balance to offset the deficit. The current rate was developed to allow rates to remain constant for the term of the current collection contract, which ends September 30, 2009. It is important to note that due to higher than anticipated costs associated with the repairs of the Old Landfill at Sweetwater and the Airport Landfill and the impacts of the hurricanes in 2004, a rate adjustment may have to occur during the upcoming two-year budget cycle.
For the long-term viability of the County's solid waste disposal program, it is imperative that they control the entire waste str...
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