Photo by Stephanie Elverd Mayor John Davies holds up a 250th anniversary American flag donated by the family of Councilman Andrew Smay during Wednesday’s council meeting in Martins Ferry.

MARTINS FERRY — A series of operational setbacks has Martins Ferry leaders considering a potential increase in sanitation rates, city officials said during Wednesday’s council meeting.

Mayor John Davies said the city has had problems with its transfer station and trash collection equipment, though some progress has been made.

“We did have a problem with the transfer station … but that is going to be put on hold. We are just going to have to deliver the trash to the landfill,” he said. “We did get the third packer back in operation. We put a new turbo on it so we have three operating packers and hopefully the newer one stays running.”

Davies noted that no date has been set for the city clean-up because officials are monitoring sanitation fund revenue.

“We haven’t set up a date for the clean-up yet. We have to wait and look at the funding revenue. When you look at the cash flow report and look at sanitation, you will understand why. We are going to wait a month and see if that fund comes back up. If it comes back up, we’re going to go with the status quo. If it doesn’t, we are probably going to have to increase the sanitation rate,” he said. “We are going to wait another month and see if it can pull itself back up. Every time we think we can get a leg up, something breaks down.”

Martins Ferry Auditor Jack Regis said sanitation revenue for the rest of the year remains uncertain – the effects of causes outside the city’s control.

“The water and sanitation lines [on the budget] are down a little bit. We don’t know where we are going to be revenue-wise later in the year, so we lowered them a little bit. We just want to be safe and stay within our budget,” he said. “If you notice on sanitation, we did not increase the fuel but we know they are going to go up. We are just trying to hold our own for a little bit and see what happens. Hopefully the war [in Iran] will end and the costs will come down for fuel.”

Regis also pointed out the unexpected costs the city has absorbed.

“We had major repairs,” he added. “So when you hear about the sanitation stuff, please take into account we had a packer that didn’t run and we had to put extra crews on. So there’s extra costs added here for a long time. This is no fault of nobody’s or anything that didn’t get done. It’s just that, if it could go wrong, it did go wrong. We worked through it and I think we will work through this and get back on our feet. Luck just hasn’t gone our way.”

City leaders also discussed challenges with patching and paving streets, citing limited funding and asphalt availability. As the weather warms up, Davies said, calls for street paving also increase.

“We are going to be bombarded with phone calls. Everybody wants their street paved and their potholes patched,” Davies told council. “But they are not making asphalt yet. I don’t care what social media says. Cold patch will last for a week or two and then that money is thrown away. I am sure you are going to get a lot of complaints and a lot of pressure from citizens wanting all this done, but it’s not going to happen. We don’t have the money to throw away.”

Davies explained that asphalt plants typically do not resume full production until a few weeks after Easter and that the city is limited to buying “two or three tons at a time.”

“They have to squeeze us in. If they are doing a 20- or 30-ton job, we are kind of low on the totem pole. We are going to get it, but we might now get it when we want it,” he said.

“They are making their money on bigger projects,” Services Director Andy Sutak added. “It just is what it is. We are at the mercy of the producing company for asphalt.”