RUSS lowers annual county membership fees to $10,000

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Counties who are members of the Regional Utility Service Systems (RUSS) are going to be writing smaller checks to the organization, as membership fees will dip during fiscal year 2017.

During Wednesday?s monthly RUSS board meeting, directors approved a county membership fee of $10,000. The new fee would be effective July 1, 2016. Counties for the past two years have paid an annual fee of $13,650.

Bruce Hudson, RUSS executive director, said he was making the fee announcement now so counties could include it in their budgets for the next fiscal year.

?I told Bruce several weeks ago that we needed a figure we could budget for,? explained Deke Wood, chairman of the RUSS board and a Keokuk County supervisor.

Hudson said the figure is not written in stone but he felt fairly comfortable in setting the county annual payment at $10,000.

?Looking at our budget, that is what I am proposing,? Hudson remarked. ?As we look at other things, we can always adjust it.?

RUSS Director Lee Dimmitt, of Jefferson County, said he doesn?t want the figure so rigid it can?t be adjusted. ?If we approve this membership fee at $10,000, that doesn?t mean we can?t come back and visit it.?

Hudson said the membership fee was always open to negotiations.

During the board meeting, directors also approved a memorandum of understanding with Louisa County and RUSS, where the organization would assume the duties of county sanitarian.

?They contacted me because they now have an individual who serves as both county sanitarian and veterans affair coordinator and he wanted to retire as sanitarian,? Hudson explained.

Louisa County will pay RUSS $3,500 per month, or $42,000 annually, to handle the sanitarian duties.

?Right now, they want us one day per week at their office and later it most likely will be two or three days if we are available,? Hudson said. He also told the board that he has been handling the duties for a couple of weeks.

By assuming the sanitarian duties, RUSS will need to hire another staff member, Hudson said. That new staff member and Hudson would likely split the sanitarian and RUSS duties, he added.

?If this all comes together, it will be beneficial to the county and RUSS,? the RUSS executive director said.

The pact between Louisa County and RUSS will be reviewed in six months, according to Hudson.

Finally, Hudson told his board that RUSS may be ?taking over? community sanitation systems. He said he could not disclose the locations of the systems until the board passes the agreement, which should be next month.

?We will take over three of the systems immediately and the fourth will be down the road,? Hudson told the board. ?It could be two weeks or six months, I don?t know.?

RUSS directors meet again in regular session on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 1 p.m., in the Henry County Emergency Management Building in Mt. Pleasant.