Some for, some against parcel fee at second hearing

NELSONVILLE — The Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District (AHSWD) recently held its second of three public hearings on the possibility of a $24 annual parcel fee across the two counties it serves.

The third will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hocking County Fairground’s youth building.

The event held July 2 in Nelsonville, featured a fairly balanced set of public opinions regarding the potential fee, applied to every improved parcel in Athens and Hocking counties — improved, meaning a piece of land that has a structure built on it. Landowners wondering if or how many improved parcels they own can use the land search tool on the county auditor’s website.

Jane Forrest Redfern, executive director of AHSWD, spoke about some of the useful programs the district has enacted since its last financial plan to the EPA, drawn up in 2019.

With its significant surplus from its split with the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center (AHRC) in the early 2010s, the district was mandated by the Ohio EPA to spend down the monies, leading to both an increase in recycling services and a now-untenable annual deficit nearing $200,000.

With that funding, Redfern pointed out, the district expanded its recycling day and household hazardous waste disposal services, offering, for instance, tire disposal to residents at a greatly discounted fee.

But “it’s not just recycling,” she said while highlighting the AHSWD’s trash clean ups across the two counties. Such programs are often bolstered through state grants that require a local match that costs the district money.

The question of a parcel fee is essentially a question between that or the raising of generation and tiered fees at local landfills, from a total of $4 to $7 per ton for in-county residents.

Redfern said she and her policy committee found the parcel fee “more equitable,” while its critics — among them, Roger Bail, the retired AHSWD coordinator — have argued it would end up costing landowners more money.

If generation and tiered fees are raise, the cost to consumers would be set by trash haulers, making it more unpredictable.

The parcel fee, if passed by each the Athens and Hocking board of commissioners, would be the only way for the district to purchase the AHRC’s material recovery facility (MRF). The increase in landfill fees would not be enough to cover this purchase.

The AHRC workers and services are being absorbed into Southeast Ohio Recycling Terminal (SORT). The agency has been in uncertain waters since it lost the City of Athens residential trash contract to Rumpke earlier this year.

Athens County resident Chris Cooper expressed some doubt as to whether the purchase of the material recovery facility is a necessity. It’s a question of “want versus need,” he said. “We’re twisting ourselves in a bind over whether to buy a $1.2 million piece of land,” while the raising of generation and tiered fees would “meet (the district’s) legal demands from the state.”

Bail pointed out that only four of the 50-plus solid waste districts in the state of Ohio currently use a parcel fee to fund their services.

Others were vocally supportive of the fee going through. One resident, and self-described “compulsive recycler,” called it “not exactly a terrible price to pay, part of living in a community and having things function well.” The woman went on to point out the math, calling it a “seven cents a day charge” to make sure the MRF is secured and kept open.

Resident Joe Radwig called it an “investment in the local community” and argued that the future of the MRF, without the district’s assistance, is in jeopardy.

Crissa Cummings, speaking both as a local and the current head of the AHRC, did the math on her existing trash bill of $264 per year, comparing that to the relatively small parcel fee, something that would “protect union jobs, and a niche that isn’t otherwise available in the area.”

Athens city resident Carey Gibbons also expressed support of the parcel fee, speculating on the potential fuel and environmental costs of the MRF shutting down, requiring the material to be transported out of the district.

And, she concluded, “The budget you draw up can’t tell you how much more the haulers will charge you.”