Delano Regional Transfer Station rate increase of 33% looks likely

After much ado, the city of Grand Coulee has agreed to raise rates 33% at the Delano Regional Transfer Station to keep that facility from losing money, which makes the raise look likely. 

The transfer station, which is shared by Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City, had been on track to lose roughly $150,000 a year as detailed in last week’s Star article titled “Transfer station needs to raise rates to stay out of the red.”

The loss in money results mostly from a 71% increase in rates at the county landfill in Ephrata where Delano hauls its refuse. Also in the rising cost mix are truck repairs, increases in fuel costs, and more.

The Regional Board of Mayors, consisting of the mayors of the four towns, voted in November to raise rates at the transfer station from $15 to $20 for the first 208 pounds, and from 6.9 to 9.22 cents per additional pound.

Additionally, each of the four cities pays its individual garbage bill to Sunrise Disposal, which hauls in refuse from the four cities to Delano. They pay another 15% of that total amount into the Delano Transfer Trust Fund, which pays for operational expenses, totaling about $87,000 this year from the four cities.

The RBOM voted to raise that rate from 15% to 20% which would bring in an additional amount of roughly $28,000.

The two changes would bring the transfer station out of the red and into the black from somewhere between $71,000 and $86,000. 

The changes, already approved by the RBOM, need to be approved by each of the individual town councils before they can be adopted. 

Elmer City already approved the changes, but Grand Coulee, at their Nov. 23 meeting, didn’t want to approve the changes, hoping a better solution could be found. 

How much individual garbage rates will rise as a result of Delano’s rates going up is one concern for the council, with Delano’s rates influencing Sunrise’s rates.

Coulee Dam appeared poised to pass the budget at its meeting tonight (Dec. 8).

Electric City still needs to approve the rate increases at their Dec. 14 council meeting before the RBOM can finalize the changes before the new year. 

The RBOM held a Dec. 1 meeting and discussed Grand Coulee’s refusal to approve the 33% rise in rates.

Elmer City Mayor Jesse Tillman asked Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Townsend what Grand Coulee proposed instead.

With Grand Coulee not having a solution of their own, and after some lengthy discussion at the RBOM meeting, it was decided that Grand Coulee would hold a special meeting on Dec. 7 to determine whether to approve the original proposed raise of 33%, or to say what amount they are comfortable raising the rates. 

Tillman said that with the transfer station bleeding out money, they need to at least put a tourniquet on it.

Electric City Clerk Peggy Nevsimal, who manages the RBOM budget, said that a 20% increase in rates would barely get the transfer station out of the red, a little over $800 into the black. 

The group discussed how there was very little to cut from the transfer station budget’s expenses, and that with another rise in county landfill rates coming in the next year or two, it is simply necessary to raise Delano’s rates in order to keep the transfer station open. 

Randy Gumm, who manages the transfer station, said that the majority of comments he receives from patrons are positive, coming from people who are grateful to be able to dump something off there instead of driving 125 miles round trip to Ephrata and back. 

At their Dec. 7 meeting, Grand Coulee’s council, after some discussion, decided to approve the raises. 

Councilmember Tom Poplawski spoke for some time about how the price of things seem to go up while people’s incomes do not. 

“We have to keep going back to this ever-dwindling source,” he said about ultimately relying on citizens to cover the costs of maintaining systems such as the transfer station. “It’s just really tough to swallow the pill of putting things back onto our population to do what I determine to be mismanagement from the county in the long run.” 

“We have to do something better down the road,” he said, suggesting a utility district in which commissioners could make such decisions. He said the community needs to move past the current four-city system.

He said that consolidation of the communities, another possible solution to the problem, may be hard either due to complications in making that happen or just “stubbornness.” 

Electric City still needs to approve the rate increases at their Dec. 14 council meeting before the RBOM can finalize the changes before the new year.