County approves updated solid waste fee structure, rate increases
Cascade County Commissioners unanimously approved a new solid waste fee structure and rate increases during a Sept.15 meeting.
County staff spent about nine months auditing existing solid waste fee codes to remove redundancies and add clarity for all but single-family residences.
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Commissioners act as the board of the Cascade County Rural Solid Waste District and they last increased solid waste fees in 2024. County officials have been discussing the broader program schedule for the last year in terms of capital needs, inefficiencies and contract problems, among other issues.
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The district was established in 1971, according to the county, with a board of directors that include the health board.
State laws governing solid waste districts have since been updated and the county commission assumed the duties of the district governing body in 2007. The county operates the district under the 2007 version of Montana Code Annotated and intends to also make any future fee increases under that version of the law, that has since been repealed.
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The district manages the storage, collection and disposal of refuse countywide, excluding the incorporated cities and towns of Belt, Cascade, Great Falls and Neihart, unless those municipal passes a resolution to be included. None of those municipalities have adopted such a resolution.
Under state law, the district board can set fees to defray the cost of maintenance and operation of the district and any increase requires public notice and an opportunity for protest.
The county is proposing a new fee code for solid waste charges, excluding residential and mobile homes.
The new fee structure uses the current punch card system with:
- base fees for the commercial rate system would be at a rate of $5 per punch, for a total of $130 per punch card
- fees would be effective on the the tax bills for calendar year 2026
- commercial codes range in cost from $260 to $6,240 and are tiered based on the number of punch cards. Commercial customer rates may increase 25.08 percent to 798.42 percent with an overall average increase of 84.28 percent
The following property classifications won’t be changed under the proposal:
- small clubs
- low income
- post office/church
- six-month house
- single family residence
- three single family residences
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Under the proposal, these residential rates may see an increase:
- seasonal cabins
- properties with multiple seasonal cabins
- single family residences with seasonal cabins
Properties with residential and commercial activities on the same parcel would be classed based on a combination of those activities, according to the county, with the residential component at the residential rate and the commercial component added to that.
During the Sept. 15 meeting, Trista Besich, county finance director, reviewed the operational challenges that prompted the review.
Those include the 4 percent annual cost increases included in the current contract with Republic Services, reduced market rates on scrap metal reducing revenue received from Pacific Steel, sites frequently reported as closed due to containers being full and the county is unaware until complaints are received, limited control over what’s dumped at sites and whether correct punches or cash are collects, and the cost of residents dumping directly at the landfill exceeds the value of the punchcards so the difference is charged to the county.
In late August, commissioners approved a five-year contract with Pacific Steel and Recycling for scrap metal collection from the county dump sites.
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Pacific has eight metal container sites within county dump sites where scrap metal and large appliances are collected.
There are three sites within the county dump sites-Belt, Cascade and Vaughn, for collection and disposal of aluminum cans.
During an Aug. 20 work session, Phoebe Marcinek, a deputy county attorney, said “we’re actually losing money,” because cardboard was sitting in those bins.
Besich said that as part of assessing the solid waste program, staff reviewed invoicing, and the county never generated revenue on cardboard or paper recycling, only accrued costs.
The new contract is cleaner and just includes scrap metal, for which, Besich said, the market has changed dramatically since the county’s last contract with revenue cut nearly in half.
But, the county wants to continue the option for recycling metal so it doesn’t end up elsewhere such as in coulees or fields, staff said.
Commissioner Joe Briggs said it had been years since the county made any profit on metal recycling, but if appliances and metal were dumped at the landfill, it would increase the county’s costs from Republic.
Other challenges include that only two sites have compactors, which could be added at other sites to lessen the frequency of hauling, and the Belt site is currently operating with a temporary set-up, Besich said.
The county increased solid wastes fees in September 2024 and before that the last increase was 33.3 percent in 2012 and a 58 percent increase in 2008.
The new system will use a $5 commercial rate per punch, versus the $3.35 for residential.
Besich said staff eliminated about a third of the codes to streamline the system and add clarity to ensure properties are properly classified.
The rate restructuring is projected to generate about $194,282, which Besich said covers the cost of the Republic contract increases, minimizes impact on residential customers and allows for some capital development without using a state intercap loan.
She said the adjustment doesn’t resolve all of the challenges within the solid waste program, but “it does make progress.”
Besich said county staff didn’t received any written comment up to 15 minutes before the meeting started and only Rae Grulkowski, former county commissioner, commented on the rate increase.
Commissioner Joe Briggs thanked staff for their work as it’s a “lot of effort involved,” which Commissioner Jim Larson echoes as it has “certainly been a lot.”
