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CENTER LINE — At the Center Line City Council’s June 2 meeting, a representative from Priority Waste apologized after reports that trash and compost were mixed together.
Paul Ruthenberg, vice president of municipal relations at Priority Waste, said there were many complaints about mixing compost with household trash. Two crews were responsible for “sporadically” mixing the two in Center Line.
“The reasoning, and again I have 43 years on this so unfortunately I’ve heard this before, is that they were helping out their buddies on another truck,” Ruthenberg said.
The waste hauler’s investigation found one individual at fault who was ultimately fired. The two crews that mixed the waste were “disciplined” by the company. Priority Waste utilizes cameras on its vehicles to track what happens on its routes. Ruthenberg said the situation would have to be monitored going forward.
“This is just something that Priority Waste will not tolerate,” he said. “Any mixing of recycling, mixing of compost and mixing of household trash, you cannot do it.”
City Manager Dennis Champine said the city found out about the issue by monitoring social media posts about its garbage collection. He also received emails and phone calls about it.
“In the end, the things that we did have as evidence, were sufficient for me to bring the leadership from Priority in and express to them our very serious concerns about the intermingling issue,” Champine said.
Ruthenberg apologized at the meeting and gave his cell phone number, (313) 215-1673, at the meeting to be available in case of any further complaints.
“If any resident in Center Line sees anything like that, please call me immediately,” he said. “I don’t care what time of day it is.”
Ruthenberg said that 30-40% of a resident’s annual trash pickup happens in May. He said “nothing compares” to Memorial Day week. Center Line Mayor Bob Binson said there could be more communication with the public about when to put out their trash during the holiday week.
“We just need to know that, and we’ll be glad to send that out to the residents because everybody in Center Line is very conscious of making sure that they do what they’re supposed to do,” Binson said. “I’m really proud of my citizens for that.”
Councilman Peter Harenski asked if the city could be notified when a truck breaks down and impacts the service in the city. Ruthenberg said he made a note to make those communications happen.
Council approves budget
The Center Line City Council unanimously approved its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year at the meeting. The fiscal year for the city begins July 1. Mayor Pro Tem Richard Moeller was not present for the meeting.
Champine gave a breakdown of the budget.
“Every department was asked to look for ways to cut back,” Champine said. “This is a lean year. We expect here, in fiscal year ’26 budget that we’re presenting to date, it does show approximately $500,000 that will come out of the general fund balance, if passed. So we think that we came to the council in the last couple weeks with some pretty good numbers. We feel comfortable moving forward, outside of the fact that we are dipping into the fund balance.”
With respect to last year’s budget, projected revenue for the general fund in fiscal year 2025-2026 will increase $1,694,288 for a total of $8,852,510. However, projected expenditures will also increase by $1,940,877 for a total of $10,578,619. To account for this, the council authorized approximately $500,000 to be taken from the general fund balance.
“That’s a negative impact on fund balance but doesn’t necessarily mean the city is running out of money or anything like that,” Champine said. “It simply means that we’re going to use more of our rainy day fund money to offset the fiscal year ’26 budget.”
Champine explained that the budget had an increase in spending for the Department of Public Safety. This was due to two officer positions being reinstituted, totaling $250,000.
A new fire truck is set to replace two older units, according to Champine. The cost of the new vehicle is $420,000 with a $40,000 annual debt payment.
The city had a millage reduction of 0.9828 mill due to the Headlee Amendment of 1978.
“The property tax revenue limitation requires that if the assessed value of a local tax unit’s total taxable property increases by more than the inflation rate, the maximum property tax millage must be reduced so that the local unit’s total taxable property yields the same gross revenue, adjusted for inflation,” the Michigan State University Extension’s website states. “This is done looking at the total state equalized value (SEV) change from one year to the next. It does so looking at the entire tax unit’s jurisdiction, not based in each parcel. The change of SEV from one year to the next does not include any change that resulted from new construction.”
Some cutbacks were made in services offered at the city’s library. The Wi-Fi hot spot rentals were done away with due to infrequent use, according to Champine.
“That’s a nice convenience to have, but when you don’t have a lot of uses it’s something that can be on the cutting board when we talk about reducing costs,” he said.
At the council’s April 7 meeting, the purchase of a refurbished street sweeper impacted improvements to local roads. Treasurer Joseph Sobota explained, at the June meeting, how the $150,000 purchase would impact projects after July 1.
“Focus right now, this fiscal year, is on local streets only,” Sobota said. “In other words, your major roads aren’t going to see anything as of July 1.”
More improvements are expected to be done in the next fiscal year, according to Sobota. For more about the city’s budget, go to centerline.gov/423/City-Financial-Reports.
