Since the agency isn’t making any money, V.I. Waste Management Authority board members said Thursday they’ll be implementing some new fees while also looking at reducing "nonessential resources."
That includes reducing payroll costs by cutting the authority’s engineering staff budget and putting a slowdown on vendor contracts. At a meeting held on St. Thomas, WMA Chief Financial Officer Deandre Atwell said the authority has been paying its bigger or more essential vendors first, then the smaller contractors as more money becomes available.
When board members said the smaller contractors were just as important, WMA Director May Adams Cornwall said the authority is looking at ways to suspend services with smaller contractors until it can afford them and reduce money spent on less critical items, such as public service announcements and newspaper advertisements.
In terms of fees, Cornwall said that by mid-year, the authority should be going to the Public Services Commission with proposals for a new set of fees on materials that are diverted from the landfill, such as hazardous materials and recyclables. Cornwall said fiscal year 2007 property tax bills will also be including an increase in sewer and wastewater fees that she said has already been approved by the PSC.
Cornwall also gave updates on the status of the closing of the Anguilla Landfill on St. Croix and contract negotiations with Alpine Energy Group for waste-to-energy plants on St. Croix and St. Thomas. She said because of the recent heavy rains, a wetlands has popped up at the dump, so WMA has to create a wetlands mitigation plan before the work can begin. Cornwall said the authority is trying to get a conditional permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to begin the work, which includes putting up a building for equipment, until the plan is approved.
Cornwall said that Alpine has leased the St. Croix Renaissance facility and that WMA is looking to work out portions of the lease that might conflict with its right to take over the facility if necessary. Cornwall said there are also some financing issues that need to be worked out with the project since Alpine has scrapped its plans for pet coke and turned to burning only waste.
The board also approved:
-a $64,857.65 contract with GEC, LLC for repairs already made to the LBJ force main, near the entrance to Queste Verde Condominiums, on St. Croix
-a $198,846 contract with Raycon Mechanical for emergency repairs to the Whim sewer line on St. Croix, and
– a $91,648.50 purchase order for 16 new oil igloos, 10 antifreeze collection containers and three oil spill containment units for the territory’s Do-It-Yourself Used Oil Collection program (Cornwall said at least two of the containers recently broke at the St. Thomas facility in Bovoni, causing spills that WMA worried would seep into the groundwater).
Attending Thursday’s meeting were board members Winston Adams, Dodson James, Stephen Jones Sr., J. Brion Morrisette and Darryl Smalls.
