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Following a rate increase for disposal and recycling single stream at the county's landfill, Lycoming County Commissioner Marc Sortman reported that preliminary audits show the landfill in 2025 again did not make a profit.
"We will have somewhat of a break-even possible to show some profitability based upon interest on money that sits in the bank that's required to sit there by DEP (Department of Environmental Protection), Sortman said.
"If it wasn't for those funds...our landfill would have lost roughly a million to $2 million," he added.
Earlier this year, the county had hired the Clinton County Solid Waste Authority team to manage the landfill, citing operating losses. Sortman noted that the increase approved at this week's meeting is in part due to increased fuel costs.
"The world is having price increases. You can be mad. You can say it's not as bad as it used to be, but gas prices are up. That affects everything. Everything we do is on a truck. Everything we do at the landfill, the equipment along with the trucking, it's all got an engine that's costing us money," Sortman said.
The $5 increase approved, brings the rates for 2027 for disposal and recycling single stream to: Municipal Solid Waste/demolition, $60 per ton; transfer station, $90 per ton; and single stream recycling, $60 per ton.
In other business related to the landfill, the commissioners approved the second amendment to the drop off recycling service agreements for the following municipalities: Spring Township, Snyder County; Selinsgrove Borough, Snyder County; and Milton Borough, Northumberland County.
The commissioners also approved the followed agenda items: an agreement with DNA Diagnostics Center, Inc. to be paid out of the operating expenses for Domestic Relations; the grant application for the Continuing County Adult Probation and Parole Grant with the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime & Delinquency in the amount of $180,281 which helps fund salaries in Adult Probation; an agreement with Stenograph in the amount of $3,096 for the six stenograph machines used in the courtrooms to be paid out of operating expenses; an agreement with Criswell Agg Services, LLC in the amount of $15,500 for fertilizer at the County Farm to be paid out of operating expenses; to grant the right of way with PPL Utilities Corporation at the landfill; a resolution authorizing the submission of Lycoming County's CDBG-DR grant application for the development of the Lycoming County Pre-Disaster Recovery Plan in the amount of $100,000; an agreement with Marybeth Bergen-Gallagher for court certified sign language services to be paid out of operating expenses; an agreement with Julian K. Davies, M.D. for medical consulting services to be paid out of operating expenses; an amendment to the agreement with Language Services Associates for interpretation services for the Public Defender's Office to be paid out operating expenses; and an agreement with McNerney, Page, Vanderlin and Hall for the secondary review of the county's data center ordinance to be paid out of zoning operating expenses.
Under personnel the following were approved: Samuel Hostrander, full-time intake officer at the Prison, an internal change and a union position, at $24.75 per hour; Hunter Shaffer, full-time correctional officer at the Prison, a new hire, at $21.50 per hour.
The next commissioners' meeting will be at 10 a.m., Oct. 22 at the Commissioners' Board Room, 3rd floor Third Street Plaza, 33 West Third St.