The City of Corinth provides garbage and recyclables collection services for its residents. The City currently contracts for this service with Waste Management, a company that provides waste collection services to many communities in Texas. The current contract with Waste Management expires at the end 2012. The City has contracted with Waste Management since about 1996 for this service.
Several months ago, the City issued a request for proposals to provide solid waste and recyclables collection for the City of Corinth. As of the deadline for submittal of the proposals, the City received three proposals. The staff is currently evaluating the proposals, and preparing them for presentation to the Council. With only two regular sessions and one workshop left for the year, it seems very likely that the proposals will be agenda items very soon. The remaining regular sessions are on December 6 and 20, 2012, and the workshop date is December 13, 2012. Unless there is a special called session, the latest date to select and approve a proposal is December 20, 2012.
To date, I have not received any significant complaints about the garbage collection service provided by Waste Management. In general, they seem to be doing a good job. Of course in the last 16 years much has changed with waste collection and disposal, the most obvious of which is the increased emphasis on recycling. It is important to evaluate the service we will request for the next 10 to 15 years based on possible and probable changes in the future as well as on the service we have received in the past. Certainly, the cost of the service is also very important.
Some items specifically mentioned in the request for proposals included larger recycle bins, large and bulky item removal, emergency cleanup (after major storms for example), and hazardous materials collection.
If you have concerns, questions, or suggestions about garbage collection for the future in Corinth or comments about the current garbage collection process, please let me know by commenting here, or contacting me directly at bhanson@cityofcorinth.com.
Showing posts with label Corinth texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corinth texas. Show all posts
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Corinth MUD #1 Update - 4/20/2011 - No its not dead!
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (the TCEQ) has stated that there is no authority for the MUD to declare itself inactive. It is active and responsible for its actions.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Cut taxes, but not my benefits
That seems to be the confusing, and untenable, position of many people today. I just read an article in the NY Times and its accompanying poll that asked questions about how to cut the deficit. It seems that most people understand that you can't just keep borrowing money from the future to pay for things today. However, when asked what they are willing to give up to reduce spending, the answer is "not MY benefits".
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
A Glance at the budget evolution for 2010
At a budget workshop in February the City staff began preparing estimates for the 2010 budget based on information available and current in February. At that point we were expecting sales tax to be down 14% compared to budget for the 2009 fiscal year (runs from Oct 2009 to Sep 2010). That would be a drop of 12.3% compared to the 2008-09 year. We were also expecting a 1% drop in property values, and given the same property tax rate, a similar drop in property tax revenue. Licenses, permits, interest income were all expected to be down. In all we expected revenue for 2009 to be down by almost $217,000 or about 1.68% compared to what was planned.
Using that as a starting point, we were expecting revenue for the 2010 fiscal year to be down $354,000 compared to 2009, or about 2.74%. Assuming the same expenditures for 2010 as were budgeted for 2009, that would leave a gap of about $497,500 that had to be made up.
By May 20th, the next budget workshop, the picture had changed, and for the worse. While the sales tax picture had improved from -14% change to -9.77% compared to the 2009 year, the property tax values were now predicted to be down by about 3.5%. Property tax makes up almost 49% of the tax revenues the city generates - sales tax about 7.7%. So you can see that a percent change in property value (and thus property tax) has a much greater impact than a percent change in sales tax revenues. Now projecting $12.3 million in revenues for the 2010 fiscal budget, we would now be close to $900k short. At this point the staff made the first moves to reduce the budget.
The 2009 budget had been adopted at ~$13.2 mil. The city manager and staff had made efforts to begin reducing the spend during 2009, and on May 20, the projected expenses for 2009 were at ~$12.9 mil. By May 20, staff had shaved about ~$17,000 from the budget (net) over 2009. This left us still about ~$600K short for 2010.
The July 8th meeting was little different: at that point, we projected ~$12.4 mil in revenues, had shaved expenditures to ~$12.6 mil, still about $196k short. So some discussions ensued around methods to make up the deficit including a tax rate increase to the effective rate (more on that later), a water franchise fee, and some additional cuts, possibly including the on demand transit service, our part of the Lake Cities library, and various printed communications the city sends out.
By the way, this is all referring to the General Fund. There are several other funds maintained by the city, including utilities, the EDC, Hotel Tax, etc. all of which are "in shape" meaning that there are no deficits in those budgets.
More Later.
Using that as a starting point, we were expecting revenue for the 2010 fiscal year to be down $354,000 compared to 2009, or about 2.74%. Assuming the same expenditures for 2010 as were budgeted for 2009, that would leave a gap of about $497,500 that had to be made up.
By May 20th, the next budget workshop, the picture had changed, and for the worse. While the sales tax picture had improved from -14% change to -9.77% compared to the 2009 year, the property tax values were now predicted to be down by about 3.5%. Property tax makes up almost 49% of the tax revenues the city generates - sales tax about 7.7%. So you can see that a percent change in property value (and thus property tax) has a much greater impact than a percent change in sales tax revenues. Now projecting $12.3 million in revenues for the 2010 fiscal budget, we would now be close to $900k short. At this point the staff made the first moves to reduce the budget.
The 2009 budget had been adopted at ~$13.2 mil. The city manager and staff had made efforts to begin reducing the spend during 2009, and on May 20, the projected expenses for 2009 were at ~$12.9 mil. By May 20, staff had shaved about ~$17,000 from the budget (net) over 2009. This left us still about ~$600K short for 2010.
The July 8th meeting was little different: at that point, we projected ~$12.4 mil in revenues, had shaved expenditures to ~$12.6 mil, still about $196k short. So some discussions ensued around methods to make up the deficit including a tax rate increase to the effective rate (more on that later), a water franchise fee, and some additional cuts, possibly including the on demand transit service, our part of the Lake Cities library, and various printed communications the city sends out.
By the way, this is all referring to the General Fund. There are several other funds maintained by the city, including utilities, the EDC, Hotel Tax, etc. all of which are "in shape" meaning that there are no deficits in those budgets.
More Later.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Gas well Drilling permit will be controversial
As I mentioned before, there will be a public hearing for a permit to drill gas wells out near the Lake Sharon/Oakmont intersection. I have spoken with some of the residents near the proposed well site, and attended the first of the two XTO resident meetings (scheduled for March 24 and 25).
Some of the concerns that I heard there were drilling safety, traffic safety, Benzene levels, other chemical levels, waste products from the drilling and fraccing process, and seismic activity from drilling (and the effects it could have on houses and other structures).
All of these are definitely important considerations. And, there is the recent storage tank fire in Decatur Texas (just about 30 minutes or so to our north west) to consider.
I understand that XTO Energy will be requesting up to nine variances to our current drilling ordinance. As I do not have the subject of the variances yet, I can't speak to them. I hope to have some more information tomorrow (thursday).
Some of the concerns that I heard there were drilling safety, traffic safety, Benzene levels, other chemical levels, waste products from the drilling and fraccing process, and seismic activity from drilling (and the effects it could have on houses and other structures).
All of these are definitely important considerations. And, there is the recent storage tank fire in Decatur Texas (just about 30 minutes or so to our north west) to consider.
I understand that XTO Energy will be requesting up to nine variances to our current drilling ordinance. As I do not have the subject of the variances yet, I can't speak to them. I hope to have some more information tomorrow (thursday).
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