Town explains dumpster funding

In a recent letter to the editor in the Independent Record, the writer spoke about her interest in using CI or Capital Improvements for paying for the replacement of many dumpsters for the town.

She stated, “It seems that the CI monthly fee of $5 per customer which we have been paying for many years now would have accrued quite a nest egg by now. What better use would CI of $5 be than equipment replacement costs such as this.… It’s time the monthly capital improvement fee be applied to the dumpster problem.”

The Independent Record spoke with both the Assistant to the Mayor / Town Administrator Fred Crosby and Town Clerk / Treasurer Tracey Van Heule to explore the idea.

Crosby detailed how the town didn’t itemize in the budget for replacing the dumpsters, even though they do have the money for it in the reserve account. He said that the CI funds collected go into the reserve account along with other funds. The Director of Public Works Ernie Slagle needed to bring this matter of the dumpster up in Town Council because the dumpsters were disintegrating and needed to be addressed immediately. Crosby said that this proposal from Slagle would allow a conversation to update the year’s budget.

Crosby said about the CI, “It’s alive and well. We have the money to buy the dumpsters. We have a reserve account for sewer, water and sanitation, which is a depreciation fund for buying what we need to keep that account going. We did not budget this year to buy dumpsters because we were talking about kicking it over to a private hauler and pickup person. We didn’t want to buy any more dumpsters unless we had to. Well, we have to. The money will be covered out of the reserve account. We just have to do a budget adjustment to cover it.” 

Crosby said they are earmarking the CI funds for a water plant improvement project and they haven’t used those funds at this time. Crosby added, “So far we have used depreciation reserves for that as far as I know.” 

Regarding finding a new private hauler to take care of picking and hauling trash, Crosby said the town will send out a request for bids. There are a variety of companies in the area that could bid. Crosby said, “We are at a point now where we need one, maybe two new garbage trucks plus a whole lot of dumpsters to keep going.” The cost of a garbage truck is about $200,000 apiece. The town’s newest one is eight years old. The other two garbage trucks are expiring. The expense of the garage trucks comes from them being tailor-made for the town’s physical needs. They have to be built as customized. 

Town Clerk / Treasurer Tracey Van Heule explained that each town bill that goes out to a customer has a $5 charge to it for the Capital Improvements every month. The town collects around $84,000 per year with this fee and has been the same since 2002. This money then goes into a reserve account that would help things such as a match for a water line project, for example. They mostly use it for enterprise funds for big projects. 

Van Heule added that they then look into all the requests for spending. There are many huge amounts of different subjects to address in their worksheet budget. Van Heule said, “We don’t specifically say that your $5 goes went to this project because all the funds go into the reserve.” 

Crosby said that “the capital reserved is lumped in with the depreciation reserve and savings.” Also, Crosby said, “You need to remember Capital Improvements funds and those depreciations are enterprise. You can’t use them to pave streets or get extra police. We have to keep those two funds separate. General and then Enterprise, which is water, sewer, sanitation.” Paving the streets comes out of the general fund. Van Heule added, “Typically street paving comes from the one-cent funding which goes to the general fund. For that, we receive anywhere from $500,000 to $750,000 per year. Things like the police department get funds out of that.”