County Commissioners voted 2-1 during a special Sept. 19 meeting to increase solid waste fees. 

Initially, commissioners had proposed a 50 percent increase, raising the annual assessment from $120 to $180, but after discussion and public comment, Commissioner Joe Briggs moved to increase the assessment by 45 percent.

That increases the fee from $120 to $174 and will also require a budget amendment since commissioners approved a budget with the 50 percent increase included earlier this month.

The fee is applicable to county residents outside the incorporated areas of the City of Great Falls, and towns of Belt and Cascade.

County considering solid waste fee increase during Sept. 19 meeting

Briggs also proposed spending the next few months examining the county contract with Republic Services, their operations whether the county could shift to a fee structure based more on usage than a flat fee.

Briggs and Commissioner Jim Larson voted to support the increase.

“I wish there was a perfect solution, if there is I’m not sure what it is,” Briggs said.

Commissioner Rae Grulkowski voted against the increase saying that she had asked for the discussion previously but didn’t have enough information about the solid waste program operations and wanted to keep rates the same while addressing some public concern on Republic charges, non-household waste dumping, dump site operations and questions about the punch cards.

The county has a contract with Republic Services for solid waste management in the county and under state law, the county can use fees to finance the system.

The county signed a new contract with Republic last year that runs through June 30, 2028. The contract included initial increases, and annual increases over the contract term, according to county officials.

City Commission approves utility, sanitation fee increases

Trista Besich, county finance officer, said that through discussions with Republic, county officials discovered they may be collecting more than regular household waste and incurring more cost. That discussion lead to the move to reduce the length of trailer the county allows at their dump sites, down to eight and 10 feet, from 20 feet.

She said the new county dump site fees also help clarify waste types and sizes to help site attendants better assess and collect fees.

Besich said new punch cards would be issued that run Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2025, since the punch cards have run on the calendar year.

The board hasn’t increased solid waste fees since 2012, “making the current rates and charges wholly inequitable in proportion to the services and benefits rendered,” according to commissioners.

City considering landfill options [2023]

“The solid waste assessment is placed on homes, commercial buildings and mobile homes only. If you only own land, you are not assessed and will not receive a punch card. If you own a house, you will be assessed and receive a punch card. If you rent a mobile home and you are the owner of the land, you will not get assessed, only the owner of the mobile home will be assessed and receive a punch card,” according to the county website. “The amount of the assessment depends on the use of the structure and the number of punches you can use varies with the amount you are assessed. A single family home receives 26 punches every six months whereas a restaurant operation will be assessed more than a home and will receive more punches. A seasonal use cabin on the other hand will have fewer
punches on its card than a house or a restaurant, but its assessment will also be lower. Each punch will be approximately three garbage cans of refuse and a staff member at the container site will assist you in measuring the size of your garbage.”

Commissioners state in their agenda report for the special meeting that the rate increase is needed to keep up with landfill costs.

The county currently operates eight dump sites in addition to the High Plains Landfill, which is owned and operated by Republic.

Some commissioners and county staff have also said in recent public meetings that the county needs to build the cash reserve for solid waste in order to make needed capital improvements to the system.

Commissioners are also adjusting trailer sizes allowed at county dump sites and the type of refuse accepting at those sites to ensure they remain operable for their primary intended use of collecting household waste from county residents.

The county will continue issuing solid waste coupons that will be acceptable payment forms, in addition to cash and checks, at county dump sites.

The county is projecting an estimated $310,000 to relocate the Armington/Belt site, with a potential additional $130,000 depending on site availability, and assuming the county conducts the construction work and mirrors design of the current site with no engineering required. The potential future site would not have power or a compactor, according to county documents.

MDT updating Armington Junction rest area

Adding containers to the Hardy Creek site could range in cost from $9,401 to $15,000 and a potential $374,000 to combine the Cascade and Hardy Creek sites.

Briggs said during the Sept. 19 meeting that the county needed to start building a reserve to address the potential loss of existing sites, needing to acquire or combine new sites, and upgrade existing sites with power and compactors to make them more efficient.

Briggs said they could also look to improve the existing system to be more efficient and cost-effective.

“We need to control our destiny by owning the sites, putting compactors at those sites, so that we’re being more efficient,” since the county pays transportation costs from sites to the landfill, regardless of weight.

Larson agreed with adding power and compactors to the sites without.

In voting for the fee increase, he said if they don’t, “we’re going to be way far in the red.”

County accepting applications for new property tax payment plan

During a July meeting, Briggs said that the county didn’t want to be in the solid waste business, but it’s mandated by state law.

Briggs said the county has had issues at the Hardy Creek site with it being filled with pain, asbestos materials and tires.

He said the county shifted to staffing that site to prevent hazardous materials from being dumped into the stream.

The landfill will charge the county more for bringing those types of hazardous materials so the county went to the punch card, recognizing that residential households shouldn’t pay as much as commercial users and the colonies.

Briggs said most county dump sites don’t have power so they couldn’t run credit cards, which is why the county went to punch cards as a practical way to accommodate different fee schedules.

Larson said in July that maybe they could use cell phones to process payments but didn’t care for the handling of cash and checks at dump sites.

“There are nefarious folks out there,” and it could cause problems with solo site attendants, Larson said, coming back to the punch card that “seems to be the best and easiest way to handle that.”

Briggs said during the July meeting that there were discussions to be had about improving operations at dump sites, but those improvements wouldn’t offset the landfill costs under the contract with Republic Services.

“These are not going to right the ship financially,” he said, and a fee increase would be needed.

He said the county could close or consolidate sites, but that will take cash and require the county to build the solid waste program’s cash reserves.

“Fundamentally, the costs are exceeding the revenue at a rate that we’re not going to be able to fix with operational tweaks,” Briggs said in July.

Phoebe Marcinek, a deputy county attorney, said it would be interesting to see how much more trash goes to the Cascade site if they close the Hardy Creek site since she believes people from Lewis and Clark County are using that site.

During the July meeting, Trista Beisch, the county’s financial officer, said that the county would need at least a 22 percent increase to break even for the 2024 solid waste rates, more to keep up with increase built into the Republic contract.

They’d need a 35 percent increase to break even for a year, but then back in the negative the following year, she said.

A 40 percent increase would start to put some money into the capital reserve for two years, but then be back in the red for the third year, she said.

For comparison, the City Commission approved a five percent increase in May for sanitation fees, which had last been increased in May 2023.

The city sanitation division handles garbage pickup for 18,784 residential and commercial customers, or 85.6 percent of all city customers.

Jury awards minimal damages in flooding lawsuit against city

Republic Services serves the remaining customers and owns the landfill.

Beginning June 1, a regular residential sanitation bill increased by 83 cents, from $16.50 to $17.33 monthly.

The current rate for Republic for city residents is $15.42, plus a fuel recovery fee, according to city data.

Some charges will increase slightly more than 5 percent due to the increased cost of services, according to the city.

City approves contract for southern storm drain infrastructure project

Increased landfill fees are continuing to drive sanitation costs and city staff have been considering options to reduce those costs for several years, such as the possibility of opening its own landfill.

Chris Gaub, city public works director, told The Electric in April that city officials had decided against a city-owned landfill because didn’t financially pencil out, plus there were potential environmental liabilities and other risks associated with landfills.

Landfill rates change on Jan. 1 annually and the city sanitation division paid $1,185,759.90 for 38,462 tons in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023, according to the city.

For the first six months of that budget year, the city was charged $30.31 per ton and the rate increased to $32.43 for the second half of that budget year.

As of May, the city had paid $32.43 per ton for the first six months and for the second half of the budget year, the rate is $33.44.

City settles dispute over project delays at water treatment plant

City staff projected a total of $1,208,647 for this budget year in landfill fees, or an increase of $35,541.