If all approvals are received, that rate will be cut in half to $1 per ton by the end of the summer, according to Anne Fiehrer Flaig, district coordinator.
“This will have a positive impact to area businesses, really for industrial customers in the county,” Flaig said.
Estimated annual savings from the reduced fee range from $104 for smaller businesses to $50,000 for large industrial businesses.
Municipalities with contracted residential trash and recycling will also realize thousands in annual savings.
Rich Engle, Hamilton director of public works/city engineer, said the city would save about $23,000 a year from the reduced fee.
For a household, the reduced fee would mean a savings of at least $1.32 annually.
“But when people are getting laid off and business are counting every penny, every little bit helps,” Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon said.
Other cost savings plans, including program reductions, are in the works, he said.
“It is another example of when the times were good, raise the fee and find a way to spend it,” Dixon said. “That is going to change.”
When the generation fee was increased in 2006, there was a mandate that the district have a plan and the funding to locate a transfer station if needed. That plan never made it to fruition and the most recent push is toward regional landfills, Flaig said.
With the Rumpke facility poised to handle solid waste needs into the future, the county solid waste management policy committee voted Wednesday to move forward with the fee cut.
“It is the right thing to do,” said Bob Leventry, director of the Butler County Water and Sewer Department. “And the solid waste district can afford it.”
Molly Yeager, Rumpke spokeswoman, said a fee reduction is favorable for everyone.
Rumpke has also approached the district to reduce its solid waste generation fee to keep disposal in Ohio and to make it less attractive for local industries to export waste to Kentucky, according to a recent presentation by Flaig to the county commission.
The new fee must go through a series of steps before ratification, including a public hearing and consideration by each municipal corporation and township located in the solid waste district.
Opposition to the reduction is not anticipated and could take effect by Sept. 1, according to Flaig.
About the Author
