Finally, there’s compromise to the longstanding dispute between Jacksonville and Neptune Beach over landfill fees.
Since 2011, Jacksonville has annually billed Neptune Beach for the trash disposal service, commonly called tipping fees, for a total of almost $1 million.
The beach community hasn’t paid, saying the fees weren’t uniform with other beach municipalities and were still under negotiation.
A bill being introduced Tuesday to City Council offers a settlement.
Neptune Beach will pay $385,000 for bills from 2011-15 and start paying the fees moving forward. It also will pay for services since Jan. 1.
Atlantic Beach and the city reached an agreement on the same issue in early 2015 that had Jacksonville receiving $323,000 in past fees.
Although she would have preferred to not pay anything for those past bills, Neptune Beach Mayor Harriet Pruette said she hopes this deal represents an end to the issue.
“I always expected fairness,” said Pruette. “As much as I would like perfection, that’s unrealistic.”
The deal came during Mayor Lenny Curry’s first year, which Pruette says was a major part of coming to a resolution. She was a vocal critic of his predecessor on the matter.
Curry and his senior staff visited Neptune Beach a couple of months ago to talk about tipping fees, pension reform and other issues, Pruette said.
Although not part of the agreement, Pruette said the city has shown good faith in saying it will help in future efforts of trash cleanup and renovating an almost 20-year-old lifeguard station.
That type of effort, Pruette said, helped talks progress on the tipping fee front.
She said at one point, Sam Mousa, Curry’s chief administrative officer, said the city couldn’t drop below $400,000.
That was fine, Pruette responded. It could go to the Neptune Beach City Council for a decision — she just couldn’t support it there. (As mayor, Pruette serves as one of five voting members.)
A few minutes later, the $385,000 compromise was reached. The Neptune Beach council approved it this month.
Mousa said neither side walked away from the table happy, which made it a good compromise. But, the resolution was good for Jacksonville because the dispute “has been going for too darn long,” he said.
Taking it to the courts would have cost both parties.
Jacksonville council member Bill Gulliford also has been vocal about the dispute over the years, particularly on fairness. Jacksonville Beach doesn’t have to pay tipping fees, while the two smaller communities do.
He deemed the latest compromise “reasonable” and was complimentary of Curry and his team resolving the dispute in his first year.
Former Mayor Alvin Brown in his last several months of office tried to reach an agreement. Those back-and-forth proposals involved Neptune Beach covering future road repaving, credits for animal control issues and subsidizing future fees.
“They put it to bed,” Gulliford said of the agreement. “Now it’s time to move on.”
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