MONTICELLO – The Sullivan County Legislature once again debated the 25 percent increase of solid waste costs at the full board meeting on Thursday, December 19, continuing conversations that occurred the week prior on Thursday, December 12. 

As the Democrat previously reported, the Public Works Committee ultimately decided to make tipping fees for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) $130.50 a ton starting on January 1 before increasing them to the full rate of $150 per ton on July 1. The committee also decided to keep Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste tipping fees at $150 a ton, effective January 1. 

After pushing this resolution through the committee, the executive committee passed it, 9-0, before the conversation continued in full board when it was brought up in public comment. While there was pushback from the public, the Legislature ultimately passed it unanimously, 9-0, and the tipping fees stood as written. 

The board again heard arguments from Thompson Sanitation’s Scott Mace that the increase is a heavy burden for the company to shoulder. Also, Mace said that they have already fielded several calls from customers who are upset and don’t understand why their bill has increased so drastically, basically without notice. 

“My second call [Thursday morning], the guy asked ‘how can you do this’ and I tried to explain it to him but he didn’t want to hear it,” Mace stated. “He canceled his service and said that he’d rather throw it on the side of the road than pay any more for his garbage. You’re going to get a lot of this.”

Mace said that when he left the office at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 19, they had already fielded 17 calls regarding the waste fees. 

District 7 Legislator Joe Perrello said that he and District 8 Legislator Amanda Ward went to the Town of Fallsburg to discuss the situation. 

“I told them, it’s not your fault, this is the cost of removing the garbage and that they should negotiate their contract with you,” Perrello said. “I think they were willing to listen to what I had to say. But listen, what do you expect us to do, take the hit?”

District 9 Legislator Terry Blosser-Bernardo argued that 11 percent of the 25 percent increase was “legit” as it came directly from the Seneca Meadows landfill, but that with the other 14 percent, they “just decided to dump it all out.”

“It was always in our budget, we always absorbed the loss from all of the transfer stations,” Blosser-Bernardo said. 

District 5 Legislator Cat Scott also argued that the county subsidized the fee for two years, but when it was increased again, the county decided to increase the rates on the companies to not put the burden on the taxpayers.

“This is the reality of the business, trash is expensive,” Scott said. 

District 3 Legislator Brian McPhillips concurred with Scott, saying, “The cost of the job is $150. It is not like we singled out a private hauler, we did it across the board to benefit all the taxpayers in this county because that was the cost to the county.”

Brian McPhillips also said that the increase has been something that has been talked about for a bit of time as they have known about it since December 1. 

“This is not a shock,” he said. “So this ‘we didn’t know about it,’ I’m sorry but I can’t get behind that.”