BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— Several business owners complained to the city council about what they said would be a tripling of their commercial garbage collection fees, during a Nov. 1 council meeting.
Barbara Franklin, vice-president, secretary and treasurer of the Keystone-Lake Region Business Association said she received several complaints from business owners about the rate hikes.
Franklin also complained about a lack of response to complaints from City Manager Lynn Rutkowski.
“She works for you guys; you guys work for us,” Franklin told council members, adding that the lack of response from city hall was unacceptable.
Waste management’s Greg Huntington told council members that when his company took over Advanced Disposal’s contract through an acquisition last year, it discovered that it was not covering its costs.
“We were under water,” he told council members. “Obviously, nobody’s in business not to make money or not to break even.”
Huntington also said that Waste Management’s predecessor had not raised rates since 2015, although it could have appealed for three percent increases each year.
Marcel Dalby, Waste Management’s area general manager for North Florida said that for every dollar of revenue the company charges Keystone commercial accounts, it only keeps 75 cents.
“Fourteen percent is a franchise fee that gets paid to Clay County,” he said. “There’s an 11% service charge that actually gets paid back to Keystone Heights.”
Dalby told council members that within the last 12 months, his company’s labor costs have risen 21% and steel prices, which are used to fabricate dumpsters have doubled.
“Our costs of trucks have gone up 15% to 20%, depending on the type of truck, over the past year,” he said. “Fuel is obviously much higher than it was a year ago, both diesel and gasoline.”
Dalby also said that because of a Clay County ordinance, all waste collected in the county must be taken to the county’s Rosemary Hill collection facility west of Green Cove Springs. He added that the $40-per-ton tipping fee at Rosemary Hill is 38% higher than collection sites in surrounding counties.
Vice mayor Steve Hart and Mayor Karen Lake both proposed reducing the city’s administrative fee it charges Waste Management from the current 11% to around five percent, and using the money for giving businesses either a credit or a rebate.
