The Friday Harbor Town Council today withdrew from its “lease to purchase” agreement with San Juan County by which the Sutton Road Transfer Station would be purchased by the County from the Town. The “lease to purchase” of the Sutton Road facility was contingent upon the county’s ability to negotiate the agreement with Friday Harbor, Orcas County Council member Richard Fralick said at the Eastsound Planning Review Committee meeting on April 1.
The Friday Harbor Town Council issued a letter stating that it would honor its lease of the transfer station through 2014,
Fralick said, “The difficulty to the county is that, by the terms of the lease, any improvements during the term of the ease revert back to the leaseholder; and we’re in a position over there where we have noncompliance on industrial stormwater. The price [of the repairs] is in excess of $1 million.
“This basically throws everything back to square one,” said Fralick, adding that the Council was committed to resolving the solid waste transfer station problem in 2010. “The solid waste program is costing the county, and this affects us individually.”
The County Council decided at their March 23 meeting to increase the minimum from $8 to $12. The increase will begin this month.
The Council also discussed raising rates on all disposal fees by 14 percent.. If approved, that 14 percent across-the-board rate-hike, which applies to a dozen different disposal fees, would take effect July 1.
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