Covanta deal on hold, meetings KO'd today

A deal between the city and Covanta to create a regional recycling center is on hold. Special City Council and Board of Finance meetings for this evening have been cancelled while officials continue to talk.
"We're still trying to come to an agreement on the contract," Mayor Ken Cockayne said.
He said he wants to make sure the terms are set before any meeting and that there's time for councilors and finance commisioners to review them beforehand.
Copyright 2013 All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Is Mayor Ward going to take a job with Covanta?

For months, I've been hearing that Mayor Art Ward plans to take a part-time job with Covanta Energy after he leaves City Hall. Whenever I've asked him about his plans, he's just shrugged it all off, mentioning only that he's not ready to retire completely and not too keen on working all the time anymore. There are just too many sporting events with grandchildren involved to work so much. But now that the mayor has worked out a proposed deal with Covanta over a recycling transfer station that other officials are questioning (see today's story here), the relevance of the longtime rumor has obviously grown. So yesterday I quizzed the mayor again. He told me he hasn't accepted a job with anyone yet. He wouldn't tell me where he might go to work. He also wouldn't say whether Covanta had offered him a position. So the long and short of it is, I have no idea if there is any truth to the talk. I'm pretty sure the mayor's going to go to work for someone, somewhere. But is it Covanta? I can't say. I would add, though, that if there's been any discussion of that possibility, it does seem like he has an obligation to tell the public that he may have a conflict of interest in pursuing both a municipal deal with the company and a job with it that could start as soon as next month. Ward really ought to stop playing coy and tell the public whatever there is to say.
Copyright 2013 All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Garbage and recycling fees to remain the same

The regional trash agency won’t hike the fees charged to Central Connecticut towns, including Bristol and New Britain, for using the Covanta incinerator in Bristol.
“As a result of vigilant management and prudent financial planning,” said New Britain Mayor Timothy Stewart, “we were able to hold the line on the tipping fee for the fourth consecutive year.”
Bristol Resource Recovery Facility Operating Committee officials said in a prepared statement that the ability to control expenses, a stable revenue picture and the availability of reserve funds combined to keep the tipping fee competitive
“Given the tough economic conditions facing our taxpayers and municipalities,” agency officials are “extremely pleased” that a recently adopted $24 million budget won’t increase the rates paid by the 14 municipalities that use the facility, said Stewart, who chairs the agency.
The Tunxis Recycling Operating Committee, which serves many of the same communites, is holding its $35.50 charge for taking a ton of curbside recycling steady for the sixth straight year.
The trash tipping fee will remain at $65.50 per ton, which costs both Bristol and New Britain a bit more than $3 million annually.
Branford First Selectman Anthony DaRos, who serves as the agency’s treasurer, said that the BRRFOC will use reserve funds to help subsidize costs and maintain the tipping fee.
DaRos said the agency is planning to use $1.5 million from its rainy day fund to balance the coming year’s budget.
The agency’s executive director, Jonathan Bilmes, said that the costs associated with operating and maintaining the Covanta trash burning plant are slated to rise about $380,000 because of inflation.
But, he said, “we expect to offset that increase with savings in several key areas, including a reduction in property taxes assessed on the Covanta plant and a reduction in the cost of disposing of bypass waste.”
The bypass waste, which is sent elsewhere when the Bristol burner is too busy or down, will likely cost more than $1.7 million to deal with, Bilmes said. Another major agency expense is shipping the incinerator ash to a landfill.
Bilmes said that the decision to create “an ash/bypass reserve fund several years ago” helps and show why it is important for the agency “to move ahead on cost-effective waste disposal contingencies, such as the reactivation of the New Britain Transfer Station on Christian Lane in Berlin, which we hope will get off the ground in the coming year.”
The agency makes about $8 million annually selling electricity, a figure it expects to rise a bit.
The regional trash agency makes its money mostly by selling electricity and charging by the ton for the trash burned at the plant. At least 180,000 tons will be burned in the year that starts in July.
Among the municipalities whose garbage winds up in the Bristol trash burner are New Britain, Berlin, Plainville, Plymouth, Bristol, Southington, Wolcott, Branford, Prospect, Seymour, Warren, Washington, Hartland and Burlington.

*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com