The Skaneateles Town Board finished its work updating user fees at the town transfer station at its Dec. 22 meeting by agreeing to new fees and regulations for commercial trash haulers and home contractors.
The actions were a continuation from the Dec. 1 meeting at which residential, business and brush and wood scrap fees were updated, but commercial fees were tabled for further consideration.
“We felt a fee adjustment based upon the characterization of the user was needed to start moving us in the direction of more equitably reflecting the true cost of solid waste disposal,” Town Supervisor Terri Roney previously said.
New fees for commercial trash haulers were agreed to by the board after the discussion of “many different theories” as to how to craft the new policy without putting “undue hardship” on haulers.
The board unanimously agreed to a new annual fee policy in which haulers will pay $5 per residence they service, $25 per business and $2.50 per seasonal customer. The fees will be assessed according to each hauler’s customer list. If a hauler does not provide a customer list to the town, the hauler will not receive a transfer station permit.
Commercial haulers currently pay $425 per year to dump trash at the transfer station.
In an effort to alleviate possible hardships on commercial haulers imposed by the new fee schedule, the board also agreed to allow installment payments by haulers, at least for 2012. The first payment, due in February, would be $425, or the same as the current yearly rate. Further payments would then be due in May, August and November.
The town board also decided after much discussion not to institute a new transfer station fee for home contractors, although the amount of debris they can bring into the transfer station will be limited to one covered pickup truck load per day.
Home contractors will continue to be regulated by the current policy, under which they can access the transfer station using the permit of the homeowner for whom they are working, after the permit has been reviewed and verified by the town clerk.
Town Clerk Janet Aaron informed the board that the new rearview mirror hangtags for residential transfer station permits have been ordered and should be available by the first part of January 2012. The hangtags will replace the stickers currently in use.
The efforts to update the town transfer station user fees are now completed. The town board previously voted, at its Dec. 1 meeting, to keep residential user fees at $20 per year, to increase business user fees from $20 to $100 per year, and to reduce brush and wood scrap fees from $750 to $300 per year.
There will be no exceptions to any of the fee changes.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Skaneateles Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
