LANDFILL RENEGOTIATIONS: Rural residents may have to start paying for trash disposals

Renegotiating Jasper County’s formal agreement with the Newton Landfill may cause residents living in the unincorporated territories to pay for contracted waste disposal services or, at the very least, will now be charged for discarding their trash at the landfill, rather than the county.

On Tuesday, Feb. 16, the board of supervisors authorized the county attorney’s office to pursue the renegotiations of the 28E agreement. Supervisor Brandon Talsma wants to specifically change the language of the contract that directly bills Jasper County for disposals.

Rather than individual citizens being charged for throwing away their trash at the landfill, the county pays the bill. Jasper County also pays for the contract trash haulers operating in the region for rural residents. Talsma said this practice has been in place since the 1990s and probably worked well then. But not now.

Especially when Jasper County is going to have to levy about $268,000 going into next fiscal year to provide for the service.

“What’s currently happening is we pay for any rural/unincorporated residents to dispose of their household trash at the dump for free, which means you can go there and throw out a bag of trash (and) the county is charged a minimum of $10 — whether it’s five pounds of trash or 500 pounds of trash,” Talsma said.

No other municipality in Jasper County pays for this service, Talsma said. Instead, cities contract with a hauler service to pick up trash and the citizens get a monthly bill. Talsma also said he notified Newton Public Works Director Jody Rhone about the county’s intentions, and he was receptive to the idea.

From a geographical perspective, it is “not feasibly possible” for Jasper County to contract with a trash hauler service provider in the same way the cities do.

“Not one contractor can provide that service,” Talsma later told Newton News. “So Jasper County is pretty much left with two possibilities: We either try to contract it out the same way as the city does and then we gotta send out a monthly bill to all the county residents hoping that they all pay.

“Or we just do away with the service altogether.”

Last year, the county levied $200,000 to pay for residents’ landfill fees. Talsma doesn’t know exactly how many rural residents dispose of their trash at the landfill, but he guessed most likely do. Others either burn it or dispose of it themselves, he said.

During a recent budget workshop Talsma requested the $268,000 that the county was going to allot for the landfill be reduced to $100,000. Although he anticipates the renegotiations with the landfill to be a success, Talsma is is holding off from completely removing those levied funds as a precaution.

“In case that 28E does not get renegotiated or passed by July 1 or if in case there is an unforeseen consequence of doing away with this — like if illegal dumping does exponentially increase — there is money there to deal with that situation should it arise,” Talsma said.

In 2019, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors attempted to crack down on illegal dumping by creating an ordinance directly addressing the infraction and imposing a heavy fine of $750 for the first offense. Offenders could also receive up to seven days in the county jail or a $1,000 fine for each subsequent offense.

Much of that ordinance was laying the groundwork for the renegotiated 28E Agreement with the Newton Landfill, Talsma said.

Some people in Jasper County might be upset about these proposed changes, Talsma noted, particularly those folks in rural areas who enjoyed disposing of their trash for free. Others probably won’t like having to add another monthly fee to their stack of bills. Trash hauling contractors could be affected, too.

“If you live in a city, you can’t dispose of your trash for free,” Talsma reasoned. “… We’re the only county that I’ve been able to find in the state that does this. Back in 1994 it probably didn’t cost that much money and it was probably a good program. But it’s not 1994. We’re looking $52 per ton to dispose of our trash.

“I’ve seen it increase $70,000 in the three years that I’ve been here. It’s one of those things where you have to weigh the pros and the cons …. For $268,000 a year I can hire a full-time employee with benefits to go around and enforce it, crack down on it and still be saving $200,000 a year.

“It’s just not financially feasible or viable anymore.”

Before any changes are made to the county’s 28E Agreement with the Newton Landfill, the board of supervisors must present the action on a future agenda and it must pass with a majority vote.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com