CALVIN, W.Va. — Despite a $1.7 million turnaround in its budget deficit, the Nicholas County Solid Waste Authority will continue to walk a tight rope to keep open a landfill.
“We had a $25,000 loss this month,” said Mark Holstine, executive director of the West Virginia Solid Waste Management Board. “After all of these changes we’ve made, we’re consistently hitting $15,000 to $25,000 every month.”
Though still financially solvent as of last year, the county authority was graded as “severely impaired” by the state Waste Management Board, which made an unprecedented decision to take over. Amidst a slew of management issues, the Nicholas County SWA was more than $2 million in the red at this time last year. The state board described the situation as “unsound business management practices.”
“There was a lot of management type, oversight issues that also led to the impairment,” Holstine said.
Holstine cited several issues with the former Nicholas County SWA Board, including changing by-laws without following proper procedure, adding a sixth board member without the authority to do so, and a failure to stage regular meetings. The entirety of the former board has since resigned.
An audit performed by State Auditor Glen Gainer’s office showed a net loss of $2.2 million in fiscal year 2013-14. Though this year’s books have yet to be audited, the net loss was down to around $500,000. Even with the major swing, Holstine admits further tweaks are necessary.
“This year’s books, which are not audited, we’re showing a roughly four hundred and some thousand dollar loss,” he said. “So a $1.7 million swing to the good in 12 months, which is fantastic. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. We’re still in an operating loss mode.”
Services and employment have been cut. Six employees were let go, leaving them with only eight route managers. The landfill is now closed on Saturday, because the SWA can’t pay overtime wages at the moment either. It hasn’t been enough to get back into the black.
Board members and Holstine both described the operating loss mode as “survival mode.” Holstine similarly compared it to a family that lives paycheck-to-paycheck, saying that one major expense–like equipment failure–could sink the Nicholas SWA despite how far they’ve come financially in these past twelve months.
“[Our mechanic] is the linchpin right now because without him, we’re done,” Holstine said. “This equipment’s very expensive on-site. And if something major happened, we would be in some really bad financial state.”
One of the upcoming changes will likely be involving the health care provided to employees, due to rising premiums under the current plan. But Holstine said those premiums are just a drop in the bucket compared to what they really need–the Public Service Commission to approve a rate raise somewhere down the line.
“We filed a certificate of need application with the Public Service Commission that addresses the new cell that was discussed in the meeting this evening,” he said.
Cell No. 7 could play a role in bringing the Nicholas County Solid Waste Authority back into the black–at least eventually according to Holstine. They need to raise rates to build it, but they’re running out of space for trash in Cell No. 5. Cell No. 7 would represent a larger investment than other options, but in the long-term would pay-off better than some of the cheaper plans on the table because it’s expected to last for 30 years.
“We’re in the very early stages of that,” he said. “[PSC] will do a financial analysis. We’ll have to produce all the documents that were heard this evening.”
Many of the difficulties facing the county’s waste authority have been exacerbated by lower outputs from coal mines. Holstine said that the landfill receives about 1,000 fewer tons of garbage in 2015 than it did in 2005.
That in mind, Holstine said more tough decision-making will keep the Nicholas County SWA financially solvent.
“It’s in the best interest of everybody that we keep this thing alive, but it’s still going to take some tough decisions and everybody on board pulling in the same direction to get us there.”
Holstine encouraged anyone interested or concerned to speak at the next board meeting on Aug. 25 at 6 p.m.