By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A committee of the St. Joseph City Council is exploring the possibility of raising rates at the city landfill.
City Manager Bryan Carter says the committee is working to figure out a way to balance the various needs of the landfill as well as the rates.
"We haven't raised I think since 2018, so the rates have been stable for quite some time and that's been at a time when costs have increased quite a bit," Carter says to a caller on the KFEQ Hotline hosted by Barry Birr.
Carter says with rates in St. Joseph being the lowest in the surrounding area, people living outside the city limits are bringing trash to St. Joseph.
"While that seems like a good thing for business, it's not necessarily a great thing for the longevity of the landfill," Carter says. "You want to make sure that the landfills available for our community for many years to come and it doesn't reach capacity to quick."
Carter says currently the committee is going through the process to determine what the rate at the landfill should be.
"To ensure that we have a reasonable landfill fee, that it's entirely reasonable to dump at this landfill, to ensure that we have enough money for operations and for expansion of the landfill, because it is a landfill so it's always in an expansion mode," Carter explains. "But also, to ensure that we're not attracting more from other areas than we need."
Carter says one issue with so many people coming from outside the city is that more traffic is at the landfill than it is currently designed for.
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