Colfax approves fuel surcharge for solid waste & recycling
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — With a $2 per gallon increase in the cost of diesel fuel over the past year, Colfax Solid Waste & Recycling will now be paying more to haul trash and recyclables from the collection site.
Brian Johnson of Johnson Roll-off Service is asking for a fuel surcharge of $8 per box hauled, said Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, at the Colfax Village Board’s March 14 meeting.
Niggemann said she had considered trying to get a meeting together of the representatives for the municipalities that have joined Colfax Solid Waste & Recycling to discuss the fuel surcharge and make a recommendation to the village board, but with the audit of the village’s finances currently in process, her time to coordinate and attend an extra meeting was limited.
Colfax is the Responsible Unit for the recycling program under rules established by the state Department of Natural Resources.
The DNR requires all municipalities in Wisconsin to either be their own Responsible Unit or to join another Responsible Unit.
The municipalities that have joined the Colfax Responsible Unit are the Towns of Colfax, Grant, Otter Creek, Tainter and Wilson, along with the Village of Elk Mound and the Towns of Elk Mound and Spring Brook.
The Colfax Solid Waste & Recycling Committee, made up of representatives from each of the municipalities, met monthly for the first year of operation, but the representatives have now scaled back to meeting twice a year, or holding a special meeting, if necessary.
Collection sites
The Colfax Village Board decided to become the Responsible Unit for the recycling program because the village owned the collection site that had previously been leased for $1 per year to Dunn County Solid Waste & Recycling.
The Village of Elk Mound also owns the Elk Mound collection site but did not want to become the Responsible Unit and instead decided to join the Colfax Responsible Unit.
Many of the municipalities in the Dunn County Solid Waste & Recycling program decided to withdraw in 2020 when the per capita fee was projected to increase from $23 to anywhere from $60 to $80 per person.
A certain portion of the municipalities paid the solid waste and recycling per capita out of their tax levies, instead of invoicing the amount individually to their residents, and did not have the capacity in their available tax levy to absorb such a large increase.
Colfax Solid Waste & Recycling officially began operating January 1, 2021.
For 2021 and 2022, the per capita for Colfax Solid Waste & Recycling on the “Colfax side” of the RU is $28.06.
The municipalities on the “Elk Mound side” of the RU pay somewhat more in per capita because there are fewer municipalities to share in the expense of operating the Elk Mound collection site.
Residents in the Colfax area and the Elk Mound area can use either site since both sites are part of the Colfax RU.
Diesel fuel
In an e-mail message dated March 8 from Brian Johnson to Niggemann, Johnson noted that when Johnson Roll-off began hauling trash and recyclables for the Colfax collection site and the Elk Mound collection site, the cost of diesel fuel was $2.61 per gallon.
As of the day that the message was sent, the cost of diesel fuel was $4.64 per gallon.
Brian Johnson is “super fair” to work with, Niggemann told the village board.
If Johnson Roll-off is charged $5 less per ton on a tipping fee, then Johnson invoices Colfax Solid Waste & Recycling $5 less per ton, she said.
“He is awesome to work with,” Niggemann said.
If the cost of diesel fuel decreases, will the surcharge decrease? asked Margaret Burcham, village trustee.
“Yes,” Niggemann said.
According to Johnson’s e-mail message, “I would like to pass this on with the March 2022 invoice and make monthly adjustments (up or down) based on this formula. Hopefully this won’t last for a long time; however, it is here for a while.”
The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved the fuel surcharge for Johnson Roll-off Service to haul the trash and recyclables from the Colfax and Elk Mound collection sites.
Voting in favor of the motion were Jody Albricht, village president; and village trustees Burcham, Carey Davis, Ann Jenson, Jeff Prince, Jen Rud and Gary Stene.
The recyclables at the Colfax and Elk Mound sites are collected as a “single stream” and are sorted at a Materials Recovery Facility, otherwise known as a MRF (pronounced “merf”).
Under Dunn County Solid Waste & Recycling, residents were required to sort their own recyclables, and a certain amount of manpower was devoted to hand-sorting recyclables at the transfer station west of Menomonie.
