To the Valley County Taxpayers:

We, the former members of the Valley County Refuse Board, take exception to how we have been portrayed by the County Commissioners, and most recently by Commissioner Fahlgren in his campaigning.

When we were removed from the board, the commissioners used a 1985/86 statute that required board structure to be outlined in a resolution. Rather than making such a resolution, they decided to let all of the board members go. To our knowledge, we were not the only county board that didn’t meet this requirement, but we were the only board disbanded. Also to our knowledge, this still hasn’t been taken care of yet.

At the time of our dismissal we were working on a number of issues.

1. We had discovered that a number of businesses were receiving garbage pick-up services, but were not being assessed for it because the Department of Revenue failed to report them to the Valley County Treasurer. We were about to start an audit of all commercial and residential properties to review their assessment.

2. The contract with the Fort Peck Reservation hadn’t been enforced for a number of years. Our members negotiated a new agreement with the tribes.

3. Residential fees are set at $145/year, which amounts to $.40/day. Anything above normal household garbage was being looked at for further assessment. For example: tires were costing the county $40 to 60,000 annually to get rid of. Our goal was to assess the people that were discarding them and not pass the cost on to the taxpayers. (this is what Commissioner Fahlgren meant when he said we were more interested in “feeing” people)

4. We pushed to get people to stop dumping items in to the dumpsters such as: a camper trailer, boats, sheds, a deck off a house, etc. and to bring it to the landfill and to use the scale and pay an appropriate fee. The commissioners fought us on this. It continues to cost you the taxpayers money every time this happens because T & R Trucking personnel have to take the time to make the items fit into the dumpsters, or have another truck come and get the items. This is all an added expense to you that we didn’t want to pass on to you.

We researched ways of monitoring the 13 sites across Valley County to prevent improper dumping. We looked at cameras, but found out that with no electricity at most of the sites, and a lack of internet service at the sites, it wasn’t feasible. So improper dumping continues at a cost to you.

To make ends meet, we contracted with Phillips County, Jordan, Brockton, Fort Kipp and outside of Wolf Point to take their garbage and have them pay Valley County for disposing of it. The revenue helps to keep the cost of collection down for you.

The county has contracted with Barry Damschen since 1987 to oversee the operations of the landfill. With his guidance, the Valley County landfill has always scored high on their state inspection. It regularly receives comments of it being one of the best run sites in the state! Barry was paid an additional $13,500 by the commissioners to take the landfill records and figure out the actual cost of assessment to operate the landfill. Barry’s report showed that the residents are carrying the brunt of the cost of operation and not the commercial properties. Barry’s recommendation was to change this, but the commissioners have yet to change this assessment to match what 17 of the 18 landfills that Barry works with are doing. The report can be found in the July 2021 Refuse minutes.

Our focus as a board was to keep the cost reasonable for the taxpayers of Valley County. If you had more than household garbage, then you should pay to get rid of it, not the rest of the taxpayers!

At the time of our dismissal from the board, we saw the following:

1. A reduction in the amount of garbage being put in to our dumpsters across the county (this meant less trips by T & R Trucking to empty them), a savings to the county.

2. A higher usage of the scale at the landfill. This meant an increase of revenue for the refuse district (a bonus so that we didn’t have to raise rates and we were able to put money aside to purchase new equipment or to expand our site).

3. The Refuse District was operating at a higher profit.

All three of these things have changed since our dismissal.

We wanted the voters to know that there are two sides of the story. And the taxpayers aren’t always hearing all of the story.

Remember this when you cast your vote.

Sincerely,

The former members of the Valley County Refuse Board