From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS:
August 02, 2012, …A few years ago, the county’s solid waste authority conducted a study to see what it would cost to expand its existing plant. Its study came back with a figure — $175 million — and the Lancaster authority was close to pulling the trigger on the project when Harrisburg imploded…
Initially, the authority submitted an unsolicited bid on the facility of $45 million. After talking with Dauphin County, which governs garbage disposal in the county, Lancaster upped the bid to $124 million last year…
The Harrisburg plant would continue to burn garbage from Harrisburg and Dauphin County, but roughly 20 percent of the garbage burned in Harrisburg comes from transfers to the plant, mostly from New Jersey. If it buys the incinerator, Lancaster would cut most of that, and truck excess garbage from its transfer station outside of Lancaster City to Harrisburg…
Click here to read the full article.
EDITOR: What is unclear from this article … and there are more from the Patriot-News to come… is the benefits to the Lancaster public that offset the risks.
With the purchase price of about $125 million and let’s say another $50 million for the repairs and additional construction, the Harrisburg public will repay a substantial portion of its debt and later benefit from projected dramatic drop in its tipping fees.
But would Lancaster be better off if the $175million were spent as originally planned expanding the efficient and proven Lancaster facilities?
So far, we can only link to the work of others and pose fundamental business questions. We will seek to learn more and to share that knowledge and resulting views.
I thought Warner told you to drop this story and stop asking questions. What’s wrong with you? Are you deaf? He has things under control, don’t worry about it. Of course if an unelected authority does something on behalf of the people of Lancaster it must be a good idea and rooted in the best financial principles.