Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
After months of negotiations, a host agreement between Packerton Land Co., Claypool, Allied Waste Industries Inc. and the Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management District has been tentatively reached regarding the landfill.
The Kosciusko County Commissioners approved the agreement Tuesday at their bi-monthly meeting. The district will meet to discuss and possibly approve the agreement at their meeting Feb. 9, if no changes are required.
A host agreement is a contract between a solid waste district and a landfill that sets tipping fees and guidelines and provides protection for both the county and the landfill.
"The agreement is beneficial to the district and landfill and allows us to provide recycling to residents with a low tax rate," district director Marsha Eikenberry said today.
According to Eikenberry, state statute allows landfills to be built with the permission of the county or solid waste district. The landfills and districts are tied together through the funding mechanism, she said.
"The statute says districts can make (the tipping) fee on the landfill up to $2.50 per ton," she said. "In this county, it's always been $1 per ton.
"The host agreement is an agreement between the district and landfill and part of that has to do with the fee."
With the host agreement, the in-district host fee is set at $1.20 for each ton of waste disposed of in the landfill for waste generated in the district; $1.30 per ton for waste generated within Indiana, but outside the boundaries of the district; and $1.50 per ton for waste disposed of in the landfill from outside Indiana.
Part of the host agreement says, "Company agrees to only accept waste generated in the State of Indiana or states that are contiguous to the State of Indiana. 'Generated in the State of Indiana or contiguous states' shall exclude waste origination outside of these states and transported to processing facilities within theses states."
"I want to make it perfectly clear that we don't have any waste from out of the state nor does (Allied) have plans to do that," Eikenberry said.
She added, "More than half of our budget is supported by tipping fees of the landfill, which allows us to have a low tax rate (of $0.0069)."
All waste in the district also does not necessarily stay within the district.
"All waste collected by Waste Management and that goes through transfer stations (here) goes out of the county," Eikenberry said. Law requires all trash to be tracked. The Claypool landfill currently takes in 500 tons a day.
The agreement grants the district the right to dispose of all industrial, commercial, residential and governmental solid waste the landfill is permitted to receive and which is generated within the district or by the residents as long as the landfill is in operation. The agreement also guarantees a capacity for an initial period of five years beginning when the agreement is signed. If for any reason the capacity guarantee cannot be met, a transfer station on the landfill will be constructed and operated by the company to meet disposal needs of the county.
Property owners within a half-mile of the landfill will be protected in the agreement through a property value guarantee.
Within a 90-day period following the date of the agreement, Kosciusko County Landfill will provide property owners a notice describing the guarantee. To qualify for the guarantee, each property owner must notify the landfill within 90 days of their intent to participate and the landfill will obtain and submit to the owner an M.A.I. appraisal of the property within 60 day after the landfill receives the owner's notice.
The period of the guarantee will be one year following the date of the agreement or the date the landfill permanently ceases to accept waste for disposal.
The host agreement also covers hours of operation, litter control, designated truck routes and other items.
Eikenberry said, "(The host agreement) does some things for the county and it does some things for the landfill."
