Bonner County solid-waste officials probe rise in undelivered stickers while weighing POS systems and fee options

Bonner County solid-waste officials reported a modest rise in reports of undelivered household stickers and said they will analyze mailing logs to see whether the problem clusters by property type or location.

"We log every piece of mail that's returned to us," said Melissa, a county solid-waste staff member, describing the department's process for marking undeliverable items and verifying addresses. Staff noted that after the county's March 1 cutoff they do not resend stickers and that returned mail is marked DNR (did not receive).

The update, delivered by Bob Howard, the county's solid-waste director, included sticker-mailing totals and operational metrics. Howard said the county mailed 26,428 sticker sets in 2025 and logged 117 non-receipt reports; in 2026 the county mailed 26,630 sets and recorded 224 reports of non-receipt. He also provided year-to-date revenue figures: refrigerators $7,480, tires $3,555 and gate fees totaling roughly $2,217,418; overall site and sticker revenue is estimated about $128,455 higher than last year.

Why it matters: commissioners said the non-delivery reports could reflect address-quality problems, vacation rentals or duplicate-request behavior, and they want the county to know whether repeat entries or particular property types (for example LLCs, trusts or out-of-state addresses) are driving the increase. If the trend reflects abuse or mailing errors, the county may adjust customer service responses or processes.

Commissioners asked staff to share the 2025 sticker log so county teams can analyze whether the same names or properties recur on the non-delivery list and whether a geographic or property-type pattern exists. Commissioners noted that the list contains many LLCs and trusts and that vacation rentals had been flagged anecdotally during the discussion.

The department also discussed technology that could change how access is managed. Howard said staff have met with multiple point-of-sale vendors (including Stellar and Paradigm, and representatives from OpenGov and GovPro) that can integrate material-level tracking, electronic tickets and back-office posting into Munis. Commissioners explored replacing annual mailed stickers with reloadable cards or barcode systems tied to assessor/RP numbers, which could be mailed once and reloaded, thereby reducing annual mail and allowing per-account usage tracking.

Board members and staff debated privacy and functionality trade-offs. Some commissioners favored card-based accounts to avoid collecting license-plate data; others noted that license-plate readers are one available option vendors support. Commissioners also discussed installing scales at fewer sites to measure loads more precisely and tie charges to volume, though they acknowledged upfront costs and that fewer sites might be needed to justify the investment.

Several commissioners said they want to see whether fee revenue from new charges and improved data can ultimately reduce the household sticker fee. The board asked staff to prioritize capital improvement projects and to propose an accounting approach—a dedicated CIP account or prioritized project list—so revenue used for projects is transparent and can be evaluated against any sticker-fee reductions.

On site planning, officials answered a community question about the Carywood collection site: staff confirmed there is no current plan to close Carywood but warned the county's use of the site is based on an agreement and that future highway widening by the Idaho Transportation Department could consume the parcel, requiring relocation planning when ITD advances projects.

Next steps: staff agreed to share the 2025 sticker log for analysis, return with further data on proposed POS/card options and CIP project lists, and present contractor paperwork for Coburn site windstorm repairs when ready. No formal motions or votes were taken at the meeting; there was no public comment and the meeting adjourned at 11:48 a.m.