NORWICH – The Chenango County Department of Public Works reported lower than expected recyclable and landfill revenues for the first half of the year.

Even though tonnage is up by 16 percent for recyclables, prices offered are lower than they were in 2008. Revenues after the first half of the year were 46 percent of 2009’s goal.

Landfill tonnage is down by 5 percent for the year so far. DPW Director Randy Gibbon reported that sludge waste from Sheffield’s, the Pharsalia landfill’s biggest customer, is also down.

Gibbon said he expected to meet projections by year’s end, however.

“It fluctuates. We will be OK,” he said, pointing to poor weather and economic conditions as factors in the lower volumes.

Revenues typically exceed projections at year’s end, and recycling surplus is used, in part, to afford bond payments for the three year-old Chenango County Public Safety Facility. About $250,000 was appropriated to the last remaining long term bond for the facility last year. The bond is due to expire in 2012.

Public Works Committee member Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, said he looked forward to the day when recycling could use surplus revenues to afford the program’s personnel and fringe benefits. Taxpayers have been paying for the county’s recycling operations through the levy. Flanagan and fellow Public Works members have long advocated for creating a stand alone recycling department that pays for itself.