WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Downturns in the market for recyclable materials have forced the town to plan on a $30 increase in the annual charge for stickers to use the transfer station, Town Manager Jason Hoch told the Select Board last week.

 

Hoch gave the board a broad strokes preview of the budget he will present to the town's Finance Committee. While there was good news on several fronts, the transfer station is a sour note on the town's books for macroeconomic reasons that are outside the town's control.

 

"We continue to see increased costs for recycling and, again, this is not a Williamstown problem, this is a national problem," Hoch said. "In part, this is coming from China's limitations on importing recyclables for processing. And even before that, revenues for recyclable materials were not strong.

 

"Over the years, we saw materials going from revenue producers to costs."

 

Hoch explained that the transfer station is funded two ways: through bag fees and annual stickers.

 

The former, the bag fees, are marginally within the control of the users who can attempt to reduce their volume of trash through steps like composting and generally eco-friendly practices. The sticker fees, an annual fixed cost, historically have offset the cost of recycling, which is unlimited to users for items like paper, recyclable plastics, glass and most metals.

 

The trash costs to the town have actually declined slightly — about $1,000 —  in the last year, Hoch said. The recycling costs, on the other hand, went up by about $17,000.

 

"We operate under guidelines from the commonwealth that require certain amounts of recycling," Hoch said. "If we operated purely on a financial basis — people may not want to hear this — it would be cheaper for us to treat all this material as trash."

 

Annual stickers to use the transfer station currently cost $90. Hoch said he will be seeking a 33 percent increase to $120 per year.

 

The transfer station, like the town's water and sewer department, operates as an enterprise fund, meaning it is funded through user fees instead of town property taxes.

 

The current budget calls for the water and sewer rates to stay flat, Hoch said. Although the town is anticipating a slight increase in rates from the Hoosic Water Quality District, the water and sewer fund — unlike the transfer station — has some cash reserves that can be applied against the hike.

 

"The good news is in the water department, where we will be proposing a decrease per unit from $3.85 to $3.70," Hoch said. "This is attributable to savings in the electric cost ... thanks to the solar credits."

 

The town recently brought online a large-scale solar project on the capped landfill at the transfer station.

 

"Water users will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of that project," Hoch said. "The pumps that pump your water up out of the ground are one of the biggest users of electricity in town."

 

As for the general town operating budget, Hoch did not give any specifics but did indicate the town will benefit from a lack of a hike in its health insurance costs — something that also will benefit taxpayers in the Mount Greylock Regional School District, which, like the town, purchases insurance through Berkshire Health Group.

 

"It's not a huge surprise for me for health insurance," Hoch said in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, Willinet. "I sat here last year and said that Berkshire Health Group … was in a strong financial position. They continue to be in a strong financial position, so that is serving us very well right now.

 

"They continue to maintain very responsible reserves. So it's not like we're at zero percent by mortgaging the future. It's a good spot to be in."

 

Hoch reported that, as planned, debt service on the bond for the new police station will continue to have no impact on the town's tax rate.

 

But he did indicate that there are some increased expenditures that he will be rolling out to the Finance Committee on Wednesday. Specifically, the town has addressed some staffing needs both on the town government side (the addition of an accounting clerk) and the Police Department, which has been able to fill positions more effectively since town meeting in May decided to pull the town out of the Civil Service system.

 

"In some cases, as we moved toward staff transitions, we've had to address wages that have lagged the market," Hoch said. "One of the things we're going to see toward the end of fiscal 2020 is some staff retirements, particularly in the treasurer and town clerk. That's prompted us to add some extra coverage for overlap so we can bring new staff on board with the impending retirees so we can maintain better continuity in operations."

 

Hoch also said there is an added complexity on the revenue side of the FY20 budget. The town is anticipating increased revenue from its host community agreement with a new retail marijuana operation and from the commonwealth's recent move to begin going after rooms taxes from owners of Airbnb operations.

 

But without a track record in either area, Hoch has no idea how much revenue to anticipate.

 

"I know I have new revenues, but I have no rational basis on which to base them," he said.

 

He said he has very conservatively estimated some money from each source and plans to put the rest into free cash.

 

"You'll see the benefit lag a year," Hoch said

 

In other business on Monday, Select Board member Jeffrey Thomas, who chaired the town's ad hoc Economic Development Committee back in 2015, gave his colleagues an update on how that body's recommendations have been implemented in town.

 

*An earlier version of this story gave the wrong date for an information session that was held on Friday, Feb. 15.