CENTERTON — The recycling programs run by the Benton County Solid Waste District aren’t quite automated, but they’re being prepared to run on autopilot.
In the wake of a pair of court decisions that effectively deprived the district of half of its revenue stream, the district’s Board of Directors chose to cut personnel rather than services. That’s cost effective in the short term, but could hurt the district in the long run, said Gentry Mayor Wes Hogue, board chairman.
“If we have to run on a bare-bones level in 2011, it’s going to be difficult,” Hogue said. “It takes a long time to build up programs to where we are and we don’t want to go backwards. It would definitely hurt us.”
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Benton County Solid Waste District
www.bcswd.com
The district is facing a budget crunch as a result of lawsuits filed against the Benton County Solid Waste District and the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District challenging waste assessment fees charged by the districts. In separate decisions, judges in Benton and Washington counties ruled in favor of the waste hauler and said the districts cannot collect the fees. The Benton County district projected about $250,000 in revenue from the fees in its $450,000 budget for 2010. The Boston Mountain district, which covers Washington and Madison counties, estimated it would lose about $200,000 in revenue in the last two quarters of 2010.
Wendy Cravens, director of the Benton County district, developed a plan to cut staff, including her position, to save the district money and keep recycling programs running through the end of the year. By cutting her time to eight to 12 hours a week, eliminating the district’s assistant director position and cutting the office coordinator back to eight to 12 hours a week beginning Aug. 8, the district will save about $57,000 in the remainder of the year.
Cravens said the public won’t be greatly affected by the cuts at first, since the tire recycling, rural recycling and household hazardous waste programs will continue.
Jeff Brenaman, who has run the recycling program, will be promoted to operations manager and oversee the recycling program’s three remaining employees. Cravens and Cara Hunnicutt, the district’s office coordinator, will try to keep the district office open one or two days a week while they answer the phones, do payroll, tax filings and complete the reports required by the state agencies that oversee the operation of the district. The school and civic education and outreach programs the district has run will be halted.
When the office is closed, Cravens said, the district’s website at www.bcswd.com will become a primary source of information for the public.
Hogue said it’s likely the district will be running on a tight budget through most of 2011. He said area legislators will be approached about clarifying laws governing the district or providing new funding methods. Either type of legislation, Hogue said, would probably not take effect before July and not generate any revenue until the last quarter of 2011.
Similarly, Hogue said the while the district does appear to have the power to levy a fee on county residents for its services, that fee would be placed on personal property tax bills and most of the money collected near the October tax deadline.
The only option for quick relief appears to be asking the district’s member entities — Benton County and the county’s cities — to increase their local contributions. The district is already approaching its members about increasing their 2010 contributions to make up for the $57,000 in personnel cuts.
“Hopefully the cities and county will help with payments through the end of the year,” Hogue said, adding that having the staff will help the district develop a permanent solution.
“That’s going to help us solve the problem, keeping the administrative staff on,” Hogue said.
Hogue said the board has shown little appetite for imposing a fee on its own authority so he is leaning toward legislative action to deal with the district’s problems.
“Right now, I am operating under the assumption that we can get something done legislatively, but there’s no guarantee of that,” he said. “Either way, it’ll be a little dicey through 2011.”