TOWN OF ULSTER >> Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency officials hope to convince municipal leaders to cut a five-year deal for service while buying their own roll-off containers over a 10-year period in order to keep that service going at transfer stations.
Agency officials said at a board meeting Wednesday that they are seeking to have municipalities pay $85 per month over 10 years to replace roll-off boxes that are now owned by the agency.
“It appears … that there’s widespread acceptance of this,” board member David Gordon said.
The agency says there are four such boxes in the town of Denning, seven in Esopus, eight in Gardiner, three in Hardenburgh, six in Hurley, seven in Lloyd, eight in Marbletown, seven in Marlborough, five in New Paltz, seven in Olive, eight in Plattekill, nine in Rochester, six in Rosendale, nine in Saugerties, two in Shandaken, six in Shawangunk, six in tUlster, seven in Wawarsing and three in the city of Kingston.
The roll-off containers cost $7,334 each, and the trash agency is seeking to replace existing units in the wake of an insurance inspection that found they cannot be repaired.
Several municipal officials have said they might have to close their transfer stations if the cost to haul solid waste continues to rise. They also have said Ulster County’s flow-control law prevents them from seeking lower-cost disposal options. Flow control mandates that all solid waste collected in Ulster County be brought to the Resource Recovery Agency, which charges a per-ton fee to accept it. Opponents of the law said it allows the agency to be a monopoly.
The county Legislature approved flow control as a way to eliminate the trash agency’s need for a county subsidy.
Resource Recovery Agency officials have threatened to end pickup service at municipal transfer stations if the towns do not sign long-term contracts with an open-ended fee structure. Municipalities can hire private contractors, but those firms still would have to bring their waste to agency facilities.
“There is a general consensus that the likelihood that the towns leaving to get another service, a private service, is not high,” said agency board member David Gordon. “The general sense, even among the towns, that we’re a low-cost provider.”
Town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley said inquiries have been made to private haulers to determine whether lower costs exist for taking solid waste from the town’s facility to the agency.
“We’ve had conversations with private haulers,” he said. “I have no information, yet, to make a conclusion.”
