On Thursday, April 20, the Financial Committee met with all council members present except for Clarissa Pace, who had previous obligations. The meeting opened with Jason Temple of McClelland Consulting Engineers reviewing several projects that range from completed to needing approval to receive bids.
Temple first discussed the East Plant sludge removal project. Temple stated that the project is complete, and that the health department has been made aware of the project’s completion, which makes the East Plant compliant with the health department’s requirements. Temple also noted that the baffle system has been installed and is complete in the East Plant as well. These baffles will force water to go through the plant, rather than around it, which will allow for a more thorough treatment. These two projects were combined and an application for funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was submitted. The ARPA funds were approved in the amount of $845,097, which is a true reimbursement due to the fact that both projects were paid for upfront by the city. Like other ARPA funded projects, this is a 75 percent reimbursement of the total cost of the projects. Temple said that the city could expect to see those funds as soon as 60 days if all of the paperwork go through with no issues.
Temple moved on to talk about the aeration project that needs to be performed at the West Plant. This project needs to be completed to put the plant into compliance with new permits that were obtained by the city. The new permits are more strict on their ammonia and nitrogen removal standards. Temple said that adding surface aeration to the plant will help to remove both of these substances from the water more effectively and efficiently. The project has been designed with all plans and specs completed and turned into the Arkansas Department of Health for an engineering review. The project should go out for bid next week. The new permit required that action be taken within three years, and the city is reaching that deadline. Temple also noted that the aeration will help to speed up the biological processes which would help reduce capacity in the plant moving forward. One issue facing the city is that the current electrical system at the plant will not support the aeration system. The new system will consist of five 20 horsepower floating aerators. These will need a 480 volt three phase line. The current system is only 240 volts. Temple estimated that it would cost around $40,000 to implement these changes.
The West Plant is also looking at a headworks project to restore so of the screens and screw lifts back to original operating status. This project is not regulatory, but rather maintenance. Temple said that both the headworks and aeration projects were bundled together and more ARPA funds have been applied for, and that the request for funds has been approved. Even though the funds have been awarded, the city does not have to accept them. The reason for this is that while the aeration project is a regulatory item and has to be completed, the head works does not. The headworks project would still need to be approved and plans and specs would need to be drawn up before the project could advance any further. The cost for the combined projects would be $1,719,708, but the headworks is $1,093,000 by itself.
The committee then heard from Ronnie Sprouse with Arkansas Municipal Equipment. Sprouse was present to discuss the situation with the city’s trash trucks, and the status of the lease agreements on both trucks. According to Ashley Rodermund, the city has a lease on one truck that will mature in May, and a lease maturing on another truck in July. Sprouse said that his company will pay off the balloon payments on both leases to get the city out of the lease with their current company, and have them doing business with his company. He currently has possession of one truck that he will take ownership of at the time he buys out the lease. The other truck is behind schedule, but Sprouse said he will buy out the lease and allow the city to pay him the same payments that they are currently making. Once the second truck comes in, Monticello will enter into a lease with Sprouse’s company moving forward. Sprouse also added that he would offer $37,000 for two additional trucks that the city owns, which are currently not in an operational status. The committee members agreed, after some discussion, that buying the first truck from Sprouse outright, and entering into the lease on the second was the best option for the city, but they decided to push any final decision until the council meeting the following Tuesday.
The committee also discussed the necessity of raising the solid waste fees in the city. The city received a letter from GFL, who is the city’s trash services provider, stating that their rates were going to go up in May. The rate increase for GFL will be a $14 raise plus three percent. The new fee would be $56.78 per ton plus an energy recovery charge per ton which will make the new total $68.69 per ton compared to the previous cost of $53 per ton.
A major drive in GFL upping their costs is that for several years Drew County has been using the city’s transfer station due to issues at the county landfill. GFL’s contract stated that the city would have six trailers at the transfer station. Due to the county’s increased load, there were 12 trailers being used, and GFL never charged for these. Through time, some of the trailers were damaged, and GFL didn’t have enough drivers to cover the overage the transfer station was putting out. Monticello Mayor Jason Akers noted that some people would complain that GFL was in breach of contract, but added, “Monticello didn’t live up to our end of the contract, and maybe GFL didn’t either, never the less, here we are.”
Akers also said, “GFL has been very amicable. They let us run 12 containers for years without charging us or saying a word.”
Akers added, “Solid waste is in a hole, and has been for a while. It’s time to fix it, and we have to fix it comprehensively.” This spurred talks of a solid waste rate increase. Monticello has lower rates than most cities or towns relative to it’s size. There is a $77,265 annual shortage in the solid waste budget. The committee was presented with several options for how to approach a rate increase. In all of the options, a 7.3 percent increase is necessary to break even. A proposed additional 15 percent was suggested which would not only allow the budget to break even, but would allow a cushion of $159,000. This cushion would allow the city to purchase new trash trucks, or repair existing ones if something were to happen. This proposed increase would be done by charging $18 for residential and commercial trash carts every month. Commercial dumpsters would go up to $70 per month.
The committee finished their session by electing Mark Tiner to be the chairman of the Finance Committee.
