County Commissioner Scott Franks addresses the raising of the Lawrence County solid waste fee from $54 to $102.

 

County Commissioner Scott Franks released the following information:

"Constituents -

By now, you may have seen various FB posts about the Lawrence County (TN) Commission raising the annual solid waste fee from $54 to $102 at Thursday night’s Commission meeting. In full disclosure, I voted for this increase.

If you have not been following this issue over the past 3-4 months, let me explain the reason for this increase.

For the past 25 years or so, Lawrence County’s garbage has been hauled to other locations for disposal Prior to that, we had our own landfill - but it was filled in the 1990s.

In the late 1990s, a solid waste fee of $65 per household was imposed. After a few years, this was lowered to $54 per household. That rate has remained at $54 for over 20 years. Over that time, the rate should have been incrementally increased a few dollars each year or two to cover increasing costs - however that action was never taken by previous Commissions. Instead, property tax money and other revenue was used to help subsidize solid waste and more of those funds were required each year to cover the increasing costs. Solid Waste has operated on a shoestring budget for many years.

In 2013, a contract was entered into with a hauler that charged $32 per ton to haul our garbage to a landfill in MS. That was a 5 yr contract with a 5 yr option - which carried us to 2023. The County announced a few months ago for a new proposal by contractors

We received proposals from 2 prospective contractors- their rates were $62 and $65 per ton - essentially doubling our costs over the previous contract. Also, both company’s proposals included provisions for annual increases over the life of the contract based on the CPI of 3%-5% per year. That means by the 5th year of the contract, the cost could be 15%-25% higher than today ($70-$80 per ton). As diesel fuel prices, as welll as other operating costs, climb, our contract costs will climb.

The Commission took action a few months ago to delay the Fall 2023 residential fee billing to January 2024 to give time to get these new bids.

The Commercial/Industrial bills were issued in November - but there are also multiple issues to be addressed on the Comnercial/Industrial side - including being sure the rates are correct for the garbage generated by each particular business and revamping the method in which commercial rates are set. When all of that is done, the residential rates may be able to be decreased as well. Thise are all issues we are tackling in the next few months.

It is what it is - under State Law, we have to fund the disposal of garbage.

In comparing residential rates in other Counties in the area, Lewis Co is $100/yr, Lincoln Co is $144 per year ($12 per month) - while other counties (like Giles Co) fund it fully out of their property tax, which can be argued is not fair either - as it puts it all on property owners. If that was done here, a property tax increase would be necessary. As you can see, there is no easy solution.

I understand many of you may have questions and suggestions/ideas and I would be glad to discuss those with you. You can reach me thru this page, via email (ksfranks@charter.net) or via cell at 931-629-2491.

I can assure you that I, nor any other Commissioner, WANTS to pass any tax/fee increase - but this is where we find ourselves now. Remember, Commissioners are taxpayers too and we will be paying it just like everyone else.

All Committee meetings & Commission meetings are advertised and are open to the public. If you have an interest in this issue, or any other issue being addressed by the Commission, I encourage you to attend During the Committee meetings, Commissioners debate many issues and angles and discuss many different ideas before coming to the recommendations you see in the full Commission meeting."