Refuse from the city of Bradford may be staying in McKean County
after all – if the price is right, City Councilman Dan Costello
said Tuesday afternoon.
On Dec. 20, Bradford City Council passed an ordinance which
would allow the city’s Department of Public Works to haul trash to
Chautauqua County, N.Y., at a rate of $21.50 a ton for tipping
fees.
But that has yet to happen.
“We were never going to Chautauqua County,” Costello, who heads
the Department of Public Works, said, explaining the changeover to
that landfill has not taken place as of yet. Since the county’s
Municipal Waste Management Plan was passed in November, the city
had been hauling to Olean, N.Y., while waiting for action by the
Chautauqua County government.
Costello said that the legislators in Chautauqua County have to
pass the measure, too. However, their solicitor did not have an
ordinance prepared in time to have it passed before the end of
December.
“We’ll have to wait until January,” he said. “In the meantime,
the people up at Hutchins – now that you can talk to the people
there – made us a better deal,” he added.
Costello explained that City Clerk John Peterson spent three
weeks negotiating with Rustick LLC, the firm that purchased the
Kness Landfill from McKean County.
“Right now, we’re going up to Mount Jewett. They started
offering us a better deal. They came down to $29 a ton. Of course,
we want them to come down more,” he added.
Tipping fees had been $86 a ton in January in 2004, but Bradford
City and Bradford Township sued. After McKean County President
Judge John Cleland became involved in the process, negotiations
brought the tipping fees back down to $48.50 per ton.
The $48.50 per ton rate has remained in effect.
With the $29 rate the city has negotiated, they are paying
$19.50 less per ton than other area municipalities.
However, Costello said, that rate is still higher than what
Chautauqua County has offered at $21.50 per ton.
“After the first of the year, we’ll see who will give us the
best deal,” he said.
City council, with new members Tom Riel and Bob Onuffer, must
consider whether the Chautauqua County rate is a better deal when
considering other factors. Costello said that the distance involved
in transporting the refuse to Ellery, N.Y., must be considered
because of fuel costs and wear and tear on the vehicles.
“There is a little figuring to do,” Costello said. “When the new
council sits down, we’ll try to figure out what’s best.”
Costello also explained that the city is not obligated to haul
its trash to Chautauqua County because of the ordinance passed
earlier this month, but passed the ordinance to allow that landfill
to be one of its options.
“The ordinance was making it legal that we could haul it up
there,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we have to haul it there. The
solicitor believed it was better that we passed it as an
(ordinance).”
While city officials agreed to return to Kness Landfill because
of the negotiated rate, Costello said that supporting the county
was also a factor in the decision.
“We’re trying to do what’s best for everybody,” he said, adding
that the county gets some amount of money per ton of trash disposed
of at the landfill.
He also added that the council is going to keep watching out for
the financial interests of city taxpayers.
“I have a feeling, with this new council, that money will be a
big consideration,” Costello said, adding that it had been in the
past as well.
