Trash trouble—Mondovi city dump a ‘bleeding artery’ financially, city leaders say

by Beth Kraft

Garbage and recycling collection services in the City of Mondovi have steadily lost money over the past few years, leading to an agreement amongst city leaders to bid out residential garbage and recycling hauling to help determine if contracting with a private hauler is the right move for Mondovi.

The City Council at its second regular meeting of the month on Tuesday, Aug. 25, discussed the financial losses the city’s dump has sustained over the past three years. City leaders agreed something needs to change—and fast.

Mondovi’s garbage collection facility lost $14,000 in 2013, $36,000 in 2014 and is on track to lose an estimated $55,000 this year, according to figures presented by the Council.

Concerned citizens in attendance that night asked why the city’s dump is losing so much money every year.

City leaders explained there simply aren’t enough people buying the city’s yellow garbage bags anymore to break even. The Council used to raise bag prices in order to make ends meet at the dump, but in recent years the increases seem to be driving residents to hire private haulers instead.

“Over fifty percent of our residents have someone else picking up their garbage,” said Mondovi Mayor Treig Pronschinske, noting Durand Sanitation alone has about 500 accounts in the city.

In addition to declining revenue from garbage bag sales, a few other factors are cost-prohibitive for the city dump.

Commercial recycling services in the city are one big cost, amounting to about $96,000 in man hours each year, Pronschinske said, plus wear-and-tear on city vehicles. 

City employees spend about 28 percent of their time completing commercial recycling pickups for 70 accounts in the city. Another 62 accounts take care of their own recycling, and if they didn’t, the problem would be even worse, Pronschinske pointed out.

Commercial recycling customers pay $25 per quarter for pickup once a month or $75 per quarter for pickup once a week.

Several in attendance argued commercial recycling customers should be charged more in order to help the dump increase revenue.

Pointing to demolition prices in the hundreds of dollars that they, or others they know, have been assessed in the past, residents in attendance questioned how the city isn’t making money off the dump when demo prices are so high.

City administrator Dan Lauersdorf explained it simply costs too much for the city to man the dump and for the city to pay for the garbage to be hauled away to a landfill.

Furthermore, Lauersdorf clarified that the city only collects fees for the sale of garbage bags, demolition drop-offs and the quarterly recycling fee assessed on residents’ utility bills. Buffalo County gets to keep the money from the recyclables themselves, as it is their facility even though city workers man it.

City leaders agreed to move forward with bidding out city garbage and recycling pickups, noting it’s the only way for the city to determine what the costs might be.

“If we take bids on it, that doesn’t mean we’re doing it,” stressed councilman Dan Johnson.

A garbage and recycling bid plan presented to the City Council by Lauersdorf that night calls for garbage pickup once a week and recycling pickup every other week. The hauler would have a three-year contract.

A community clean-up day for large items that are expensive to get rid of normally could also be an option for the city.

“Everybody has garbage,” Pronschinske said. “This option is step one to deal with the problem of the dump losing money.”

Councilman Jerry Rud said a valuable city service would be lost if the dump closed. Additionally, members of the elderly community that don’t require once-a-week pickup would ultimately pay more. The current recycling fee structure is already unfair for a lot of residents, Rud continued, as each household is assessed a flat fee of $12 per quarter whether they use it or not.

Yet the lure of potential cost savings that could be had by switching to city-wide pickup may entice many to get board with shutting down the city dump.

“If we bid this out, chances are it’s going to be cheaper than what you’re paying now because they will have the whole city,” Lauersdorf reasoned.

In other communities with city-wide pickup, costs per quarter ranged from $25-$35 for a 35-gallon container, an additional five to seven dollars for the 65-gallon size, and a charge of $42-$50 for a 95-gallon container. Recycling fees were between $3-$5 per quarter.

Current prices for the City of Mondovi’s yellow garbage bags are $5 for a 15-gallon bag, $6.50 for a 33-gallon bag and $10 per 55-gallon bag.

Garbage and recycling fees would be assessed to residents’ quarterly utility bills if Mondovi contracts with a private hauler. Unpaid utility bills are effectively assessed to the homeowner’s tax roll.

Lauersdorf said another benefit of going to city-wide pickups is it could stop trash hording and deter people from dumping trash in city parks and in area ditches because everyone would be paying to have garbage and recycling service regardless.

Pronschinske said he doesn’t want city residents to feel like the decision is being “shoved down their throats.” More conversations will take place before any final decisions are made, he said.

For those who are concerned about any contracts they may have signed with a private hauler or yellow bags they may have purchased, city leaders assured a few easy solutions.

For one, the city provides licenses to haulers to pick up in the city. If one private hauler is chosen to handle a city-wide garbage and recycling pickup, all others would be disallowed from picking up at residences in the city—essentially voiding any other contracts.

As for the yellow bags, Lauersdorf said the city could offer reimbursement for the bags for a period of time if the city ultimately were to accept a bid from a hauler.

Pronschinske and other city leaders expressed interest in holding a public hearing on the subject of switching to city-wide pickup and closing the city dump once the bids from haulers are in.

“I’d really like to hear from the public on this,” Pronschinske said.

Bids for garbage and recycling services are set to be discussed at the Oct. 13 City Council meeting, according to the garbage and recycling bid specs presented by Lauersdorf that night.