Cochise County supervisors review public works budget, focus on solid waste funds, fleet charges and rural road maintenance

Public Works Director Jason Fazio told the Cochise County Board of Supervisors on April 1 that the department’s budget review would concentrate on three divisions: solid waste, light fleet and heavy fleet.

Fazio said the county must hold statutory funds for landfill closure and landfill development and described revenue sources for solid waste operations, including tipping fees, a state waste-tire program and limited recyclable sales. "This is one of those statutes that we have to put money away so that we can care for the landfills, indefinitely," Fazio said.

Why it matters: the work session was a departmental budget briefing, not a formal vote. Supervisors used the discussion to press staff for clarifications about fleet charges, underwriting of replacement vehicles, and options for stabilizing costs on rural roads. Staff described specific budget lines, existing practices for recycling and hauling, and follow-up tasks the board requested.

Solid waste revenue and costs

Fazio presented the solid waste revenue and expenditure lines shown in the department packet. He described a landfill-closure fund (listed in materials at roughly $3.32 million), a solid-waste landfill development line, and annual operating revenue from scalehouse fees and recyclables (materials showed roughly $6.89 million of solid-waste operations revenue). Fazio said Cochise County receives a state-funded waste-tire program allocation (funded by the $5-per-tire disposal fee) and pays a private contractor, identified in the session as CRM/Crumb Rubber in Phoenix, to haul and grind tires.

Fazio told the board the county accepts approximately 82,000 tons of material a year at the regional facility and hauls 2,000–5,000 tons of metal and roughly 2,000 tons of…