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.

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