BY MILES LAYTON

A round-up of all things Hyde County…

First, the proposed user fees for solid waste disposal were discussed at Hyde County Commission’s budget workshop to hammer out plans for Fiscal Year 2025-26. More on that below.  

Next, there was a groundbreaking recently for the Mattamuskeet School, so that’s good news ahead. Thanks goes to Julio Morales of Hyde County Schools for that news and press release.  

Took a wrong turn and ended up touring a good chunk of the county on Friday. Beautiful place. Lot of thoughts and places.  

Per Chuck Credle, Bell Island Pier is closed because of work on the bulkhead and some other things.  

Episcopal Bishop Rob Skirving led the worship service at St. John’s, Sladesville, last Sunday, June 1.

Lastly, be careful when traveling near and far across Hyde County, elsewhere too — lot of turtles crossing the roads. I wish I could tell the turtles that the grass is not always greener on the other side, but to each his own I guess.

User Fees

Back to the user fees for solid waste disposal from Wednesday’s budget workshop — the Commission seeks to implement a fee of $180 per year for homes and a $400 per year fee for businesses. Presently, the money to pay for solid waste disposal comes from property tax revenue. 

Long and short of it, County Manager Kris Noble said a user fee model vs a tax model works better to handle costs associated with solid waste disposals. She said in contrast to tax money taken from everyone whether or not they need trash disposal, a user fee model would be more equitable because it distributes costs to users, which may reduce the burden on the tax base.

Noble said based on extensive discussions with Republic Services, which handles the county’s solid waste removal, about the increasing costs of disposing solid waste, she determined that the county needed another revenue stream to support trash removal. Noble said after researching 20 counties’ solid waste ordinances, she determined that most counties charge fees for waste removal. 

Worth noting, none of these counties accept commercial waste at their dump sites – Hyde is the only one. Noble said 75 percent of Ocracoke’s trash comes commercial waste – restaurants and rental properties – which is a major cost driver. Because Ocracoke doesn’t have the space, it’s not an option to allow for dumpsters and a dumpster service where a truck comes on a weekly basis to haul trash away as it is for mainland businesses.

​​”I have personally gone out on my bicycle in the last month and looked at every restaurant on the island, and there are many that will not have a place to put a dumpster,” she said. “The majority don’t have a place to put a dumpster. So that’s why we can’t say get your own dumpster, because they can’t. We’ve got to come up with a way that we can quantify that commercial waste. We are looking to do heart surgery in the middle of a heart attack. We are trying to fix a ‘bleed’ while it is bleeding.” 

Thus, while trying to come up with a pricing strategy to provide this service, Noble determined that $15 a month – $180 per year – for residential and about $33 a month – $400 per year – for commercial, which is cheaper than other similar arrangements. Commission will need to adopt a solid waste ordinance in July.  

“I feel like this is so misunderstood because the very point of charging for solid waste is to reduce the tax burden that’s been put on them from commercial solid waste to the user,” Noble said. “It is hard for our citizens in that situation to see that. All they see is that ‘I’m getting charged $180’. However, this is the beginning of a way that we can separate the cost fairly to the people who are actually using the resource.”

Commission Chairman Randal Matthews added that by making solid waste removal more cost effective and by generating more than $750,000 in revenue, it may reduce property tax rates in the long run and make solid waste removal rates would be more equitable.  

“That’s the idea, but this first step is the hard part – making this change, people don’t want the additional tax, but in the longrun, I hope it will be more proportional,” he said. 

Matthews said the user fee is the first step towards a more equitable distribution of solid waste expenses that reflect the usage of those services. 

“It will reflect the usage by businesses that generate so much more that it will take the burden off residents. In two years, that’s my goal to see that tax rate drop and see that reflect in the real cost of what a business and rental homes should be paying,” he said.    

Noble said as the County and Republic work together to formulate better solid waste solutions for convenience sites and commercial waste removal forward, “There would be no way in heaven that we would need to implement changes to our solid waste or our convenience sites in Ocracoke in the month of July. That would be crazy.”

During the next several months, Noble said, Republic and the County will work together to formulate a better solid waste removal policy for Ocracoke – policies that “would stop the bleeding that we’re experiencing now” so that the Commission can avoid raising taxes “to pay for this bleeding which is unfair.”  

Let’s veer into the weeds – County’s contract with Republic is scheduled to end this year. Noble said during the last five years, when they’ve bid on that contract, the company didn’t realize everything that the job entailed. However, now that Republic knows where it is has made profit and lost money, it can better forecast costs. Get this – per year it costs Ocracoke’s $241,900 (costs more to haul trash off the island) vs Ponzer ($16,000+); Scranton (18,000+); Swan Quarter (nearly $53,000); Fairfield (nearly $16,000); Engelhard ($63,500). 

“That’s concerning that it costs so much more on the Island,” Noble said.   

If Republic’s contract with the County is approved, several sites will see a decrease in prices, however, Engelhard will cost more because of its distance from the Beaufort transfer station. Ocracoke’s site too will cost more.

Thus, Republic proposes increasing costs by $81,000 more for the first year and nearly $80,000 for the second year.   

“I do not believe we would get a better price at another vendor, and I also do not believe another vendor would serve as well,” Noble said. 

Matthews added, “Republic wants the work… we don’t have a lot of options at that price… They are giving us a good rate especially with Ocracoke.” 

Last thing — there would be a slight uptick in solid waste removal salaries – hard to attract people at the present pay scale. Also, that means the county is “stretched thin” sending mainland convenience site workers over to Ocracoke, making it more expensive and making mainland sites harder to staff. Thus the county wants to hire one full-time assistant waste director (a competitive salary of $52,000 per year plus $8,000 housing stipend, benefits, etc.) for Ocracoke.