The Greeneville-Greene County Regional Solid Waste Planning Board voted Monday to raise the tipping fee collected at the city/county landfill by $5.27, effective July 1.

To be final, the change must also be approved by the Greeneville Board of Mayor and Aldermen, most likely at its meeting two weeks from today.

"Tipping fee" is the term for the fee charged for dumping a ton of garbage at the transfer station. The current fee for Class 1 waste is $34.07 per ton for businesses, or $31.07 for city and county trucks.

The solid waste board voted, on a motion by Tusculum representative Robert K. Bird, to increase the tipping fee by $5 per ton.

In the same motion, the board voted to make a 27-cent, cost-of-living increase effective in July, instead of next January. Cost of living increases are a feature of the city/county contract with the BFI landfill in Hawkins County.

Approval was unanimous.

Alderman Sarah Webster, who chairs the Solid Waste Planning Board, said the increase is needed because the fund that the state requires the city and county governments to maintain in reserve to cover costs related to landfills that already have been closed has been declining for two years.

Greeneville City Recorder Jim Warner prepared a table showing that the balance of this fund increased every year from 2000 until 2005, when the balance had grown to $7.15 million, but has declined every year since then. The balance was $4.6 million in 2000, and had grown to $7.15 million by 2005. The fund balance was still just over $7 million in 2006 but fell to $6.67 million in 2007, according to the table.

"This year we will probably see a comparable decrease, to around $6.3 million or $6.2 million," Warner told the well-attended meeting.

In addition to all members of the board, County Mayor Alan Broyles, Greeneville Mayor Darrell Bryan and County Budget Director David Lawing were present.

Webster said the decision needed to be made now because both the city and the county governments are in the process of preparing budgets for the fiscal year that begins July 1, and both of those budgets appear to be tight.

Member Bob Bird asked what balance the fund is required to maintain. Webster said that initially the fund was to maintain a balance of at least $5 million, but that has since been reduced.

"We all know, if there is a problem, that $5 million wouldn't be enough," Webster said, citing a landfill in Florida that recently was required to spend $91 million to fix problems that developed at an already-closed landfill.

Zip Wright, who manages the transfer station and landfill, noted that three years ago, state officials required remedial work on the old city/county landfill on Whirlwind Road that cost $200,000.

Webster also noted that when former County Mayor Roger Jones and Mayor Darrell Bryan agreed in 2004 to reduce the annual contribution to the fund to $100,000 from both the Greene County and Greeneville governments, they also agreed not to let the balance fall below $4 million.

Until 2005, the contribution by the city and county had been a calculated figure based on operational costs, but when the balance exceeded $7 million, it was reduced by negotiation between the two mayors to $100,000 each. The fund hovered around $7 million for two years after the reduction, then began falling.

During discussions that preceded the vote, Webster asked Chris Craig, a solid waste specialist with the First Tennessee Development District who was present, if he had any suggestions.

Craig said "the biggest headache" faced by every county and municipality he works with is rising fuel costs. Some counties have begun using contract haulers, he said, but now are facing fuel surcharges in contracts that make contract hauling less desirable.

Greeneville and Greene County jointly operate a fleet of tractors and trailers with special aluminum bodies for hauling waste to BFI's landfill.

However, Webster said Greeneville and Greene County have already been hit with a fuel surcharge in the waste tire contract.

Mayor Broyles said bids were opened last week on waste tire handling, and the contract was again awarded to USTire in North Carolina. Hubert Metcalf, the county's solid waste director, said the new contract calls for $67 per ton, plus a 60-cent per mile surcharge on the 515-mile trip to the USTire facility.

Craig said Greeneville and Greene County's contract with the BFI landfill in Hawkins County "is by far the cheapest in Northeast Tennessee," and other counties are envious.

Webster presented several options, including "Do nothing and go home," but she said she believes the board has an obligation to try to avoid a very large increase down the road, after the fund has fallen below "a secure figure."

One scenario that Wright and Webster had worked up called for a $11.02 increase in the tipping fee, plus a $302,694 increase in the county's appropriation, and a $253,836 increase in the town's contribution. The calculations were based on average tonnage landfilled by the two respective governments. Several questions were asked about this option, but no one spoke in favor of it.

A less complicated option called for the city and county governments to each contribute $340,015, with no tipping fee increase at this time, other than the 27-cent increase next January.

Yet another option called for a $5 increase, and also called for dividing the projected shortfall in the reserve fund in half, letting the city and county each pay $128,378 plus $100,000 next year.

Bird took the $5 per ton increase from this option, but his motion did not include the $128,378 increases.