Sometime soon, Ontario County communities will get money to implement local programs aimed at reducing solid waste and increasing recycling and reuse. The money will come from so-called 鈥渟uccess payments鈥欌�� received by the county from Casella Waste Systems, operator of the Ontario County Landfill, as a reward for getting a state permit for a 43.5-acre expansion of the landfill within the existing footprint. County officials are still working out a formula to distribute the funds.
The county will receive $18.3 million in success payments from Casella. That will be distributed to the county at $1.3 million a year for the next 14 years. A 2013 board resolution ordered that those success payments were to be used to pay off any outstanding county real property taxpayer supported debt, the fund reserve for the county鈥檚 self-insurance program, to invest in the county鈥檚 information technology systems and to be set aside in a tax stabilization fund balance reserve.
Then the county adopted a Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) in 2014 with a goal of reducing waste to the landfill by 60 percent by 2024. Now the county wants to use some of the success payments to implement the SWMP, establish a solid foundation for management of the landfill, investigate developing the land or adjacent county property as a future resource and ensure a sustainable community.
Beginning with the 2016 success payment, half 鈥� $653,780 鈥� will be budgeted annually through 2018 to fund implementation of the SWMP or other projects that further the goal of increased waste reduction, recycling, reuse and diversion of solid waste from a landfill.
The money will be shared with towns, villages and cities to pay for locally sponsored projects that meet the goals of the SWMP. 鈥淭his will allow for innovative and recommended projects, set forth by contracts between the county and other municipalities,鈥欌�� said Carla Jordan of the county Planning Department. 鈥淭he 16 towns, villages and two cities can also carpool with another municipality to apply for funds for a joint project.鈥�
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