City Councilmen Roy Christensen and Trent Fellers are concerned the proposed recycling plan -- in which cardboard and paper products would be banned from the landfill -- may cost consumers more than anticipated.
The ban will eventually remove 20 percent of the recyclable material from going into the landfill. It will cut landfill revenue by $1.5 million a year, because revenue is based on the tons of waste hauled to the landfill, according to Fellers' calculations.
The two councilmen said they learned recently that landfill operating costs will not be reduced. Landfill costs are substantially fixed and not dependent on the amount of material that comes in, they were told.
So the city administration will likely be asking for an increase in landfill fees to make up for the loss of revenue.
This wouldn’t be a first. Conservation has increased fees in other areas, too.
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Take electric charges. As consumers conserve, bills for users are going up to pay for the fixed costs of providing electric service.
The two councilmen believe waste haulers will have to pass those increases in landfill fees on to consumers.
So people will be paying more if they want curbside recycling. (They can take paper products to a city recycling site themselves and save on this cost.)
Then consumers may see increased costs for their garbage because of landfill fee hikes, the councilmen fear.
Christensen said he has a number of problems with the plan by Mayor Chris Beutler to ban paper products from the landfill, in effect requiring people to recycle.
How do you prevent contamination of recycling products? People dumping garbage in a recycling bin, for example.
Are there any long-term economic benefits from keeping this material out of the landfill? Christensen said the administration hasn't been able to show him these savings.
Should the city try to control behavior by criminalizing it? The plan would make it a misdemeanor to put paper products in the landfill.
But Fellers says he is concerned primarily with the costs.
People should know the plan is to ban items from the landfill, and then in all likelihood turn around and charge people more for regular garbage service, said Fellers.
"Let’s be honest about the costs," he says.
Rising fees coming regardless
Landfill fees will be going up no matter what, even if there is no recycling program, according to Rick Hoppe, chief of staff to Mayor Chris Beutler.
The city needs to make up for years when there was no fee increase, he says.
So it isn't correct to say landfill fees are rising strictly because of recycling, he said.Ìý
The administration is trying to figure out the potential savings from recycling. The city won't have to open up as many new cells in the landfill, as successful recycling reduces waste going to the site.
Those savings should offset at least part of the lost revenue, Hoppe said.Ìý
ÌýGlad-handing made them sick
When a whole bunch of politicians and lobbyists got sick at a fundraising banquet in early spring, people blamed it on the food.
But it looks like dozens of people got sick because of an occupational hazard for politicians -- shaking hands.
A local health department investigation, with responses from about half the more than 200 people attending the March 10 event, indicated at least 35 people who attended the dinner got sick from norovirus, which causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Sometimes people get norovirus from the food, which has been touched by a sick restaurant staff member. That likely didn’t happen in this case.
The investigation found only one food (steamed asparagus) to have any statistical association with illness, but the relative risk was quite low. Since norovirus is killed by heat, and food preparers reported no bare hand contact with the food after cooking, the asparagus was an unlikely source of illness.
And none of the staff reported being ill either before or after the dinner.
Here is the investigation conclusion:
“In this particular outbreak, there was extensive interaction of guests prior to, during and after the banquet. Physical contact occurred between many guests through shaking hands.â€
“It is clear that this outbreak of illness was caused by norovirus and that attending this event was associated with illness. The source of the norovirus was not determined.â€
“While a definitive conclusion cannot be drawn, the most plausible cause of this outbreak was person-to-person transmission.â€
Council says no to Spigot manager
Liquor license applications and renewals are generally a routine affair for the Lincoln City Council. But recently the council turned down a request to approve Jeffrey Hubbard as manager of the Spigot Lounge, 1624 O St., because of numerous minor issues.
They included:
* Fire code violations in the process of being repaired.
* Late payment to the city for liquor license fees.
*ÌýLate filing to state commission for a change in ownership.
* Hubbard’s personal failure to appear in court for traffic tickets, both recently and historically.
* Recent failure to pay city occupation taxes.
* Numerous noise violations at the bar.
“It’s atrocious,†said Councilman Roy Christensen about the noise problems. Combine that with the disregard for a number of requirements to run a business, and I’m going to deny your application."
The other council members agreed with that assessment. This recommendation from the city goes to the state Liquor Control Commission, which makes the final decisions on liquor licenses.
Just trim it a little
A trim. That’s what the Lincoln City Council, or at least the Republican majority, appears to be doing with several proposals from the administration of Mayor Chris Beutler: the Woods Park tennis facility and certificates of participation bonds for a fire station, fire equipment, street lights and the former Experian complex roof project.
They’re not trying to stop projects, just trim them a bit.
The council Monday delayed for another week a decision on giving $1.25 million in keno funding to help with construction of the indoor tennis facility, replacing the aging bubbles at Woods Park.
Council members are talking about trimming a couple hundred thousand dollars off the city keno money allocation. Private donors have already raised around $4.6 million for the project, expected to cost about $6.34 million.
The Woods Park courts are the only public indoor tennis courts in the city, and private players have stepped forward to pay the cost of bringing tennis to lower income youth, supporters have said.
The city would own the building, but the private, nonprofit Friends of Woods Tennis would continue to operate the programs that serve children and youth throughout the city.
Council members are also looking at trimming a little more off the $9.65 million in certificates of participation bonds, proposed by Beutler. Council members were discussing a proposal by Councilman Jon Camp to reduce the bond by $800,000 Monday when concerns about the weather led to an early adjournment.