The Hillsdale City Council voted to send discussions about the operating hours of the city’s compost site back to the public services committee at the April 2 council meeting.
After discussions about the renovations to State Street and the 2012-2013 budget, the council turned their attention to the compost site.
“Paying to have someone down there all week — it’s ridiculous,” Councilor Brian Watkins said.
Watkins suggested that the committee discuss having the site open only on Saturdays to cut costs. The compost site is currently open Tuesday through Saturday from the first week of April until Thanksgiving.
“Once a week — once people adjust to it — would be plenty,” Watkins said.
While the city is preparing to spend money on the renovations of State Street, Watkins said the council needs to seriously consider where it can cut costs.
“We need money for streets,” he said. “At the same time, if we’re going to be asking for money, we need to show we’re making cuts where we can make cuts.”
Director of Public Services Keith Richards spoke at Monday’s meeting against cutting down on the hours the site is open.
“For ten years, we’ve taken a lot of abuse out there,” he said.
Richards asked for the committee’s understanding in reviewing the hours. If the city were to cut back on the hours, he said he foresees problems between city residents and the city.
“You don’t understand what it’s like,” he said. “People become very passionate about getting into the compost site. It sounds funny until you get someone standing in your face literally threatening your life saying, ‘I’m going to drive through the gate if I have to.’”
Richards said the city has already cut down on the frequency of brush and leaf collection.
Councilor Mary Wolfram asked Richards what he would suggest to solve the problem.
“The quest is to find the least expensive way to provide the service, obviously,” she said.
“It just bothers me to think we’re paying someone to stand out there and to wait until someone comes by.”
Richards suggested staffing the site during the busier times of the year and installing an automatic gate, since the employee who monitors the gate gets paid close to $100 a day, Richards said.
Richards also pointed out that the costs of running the compost site last year were much more than normal because of events such as the ice storm. Last year, bulldozers, as well as two wood chippers, were brought to the site to clear it out.
Normally, wood chippers are brought in every three or four years. Bulldozers are also brought in every three to four years to grind up the concrete slabs from old sidewalks. But because of the excess wood from the ice storm, the concrete could not be ground up. So, they had to grind up the wood as well as the concrete in the same year.
In addition to the annual costs of turning the leaves at the site — about $40,000 — the concrete grinders cost about $25,000 and the wood chippers cost about $7,500.
“All the costs you see,” he said, “that’s all rolled into what it cost to man that site last year.”
Richards said the costs could be significantly less this year.
“I think last year the costs were more than any of the other years we’ve been there, and we can reduce those costs,” he said.