Palouse will charge fee for chipper station use

Palouse residents will soon be charged $25 for an annual permit to use the city’s chipping station. The new fee is the result of Whitman County no longer funding small-town use of the county chipper.

“I think it’s fair and very reasonable. By the time you have to haul anything out of town- it’s very convenient to have it here in town,” said Palouse resident Connie Newman, whose family hauls small tree branches out to the city facility once a year when they prune.

The Palouse city council March 9 approved adding the fee. Starting April 1, residents must buy a new permit for $25 at city hall.

The chipper was originally purchased by Whitman County with a grant from the state’s Department of Ecology. County staff have been servicing chipper stations in small towns around the county for the past year.

The grant expired last December, prompting county officials to ask towns to pay for the use of the chipper at an hourly rate.

Palouse used the chipper almost a dozen times last year and wanted to continue the program. Without money in the budget to rent the machine, they decided to ask citizens to foot the bill.

“It’s such a popular program in Palouse- I think it will be well supported,” said City Clerk Joyce Beeson.

The city has issued 224 permits with a charge to use its facility. Those permits will be void after April 1.

Anyone wanting to use the facility after that date must buy the new permit, Beeson said. The city doesn’t have a sure-fire method of checking if people using the chipper station have paid, but they do have a camera set up out there, she added.

“We just have to trust people,” she said.

Newman said she and her family trim the fruit trees in their yard every spring. They bring the branches on down to the station. Newman said the fee was reasonable because people don’t have to drive out of town with their branches.

“It’s such a necessity. We have enough burn-piles- I don’t have a problem with it. Most of the people I’ve talked to feel the same way,” said Pete Hertz, another Palouse citizen. Hertz said he hauled out yard waste to the facility three times last year, mostly leaves and small limbs out of trees from his yard.

Hertz has sat in on some of the council meetings where the council weighed its options after the county ended the chipper program. He said he was okay with paying the fee because he realizes the city has to make up the difference somewhere.

Palouse officials will periodically rent a chipper to grind up the material left at the site, but have not yet decided if they will use the county’s chipper.

Under the new county format, a county landfill employee brings the chipper to the location and works with a local staffer. Towns are required to pay the cost. Palouse is also checking out possible use of a chipper from Garfield.