Board Raises Landfill Fees 50% for Small Trucks : Politics: In other votes, supervisors agree to keep Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park open daily and approve development deal with Santa Margarita Co.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday hiked landfill fees 50% for the gardeners, construction workers and other small business owners who truck refuse to local landfills.

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The board voted 3 to 0, with two supervisors absent, for the increase over the sole objection of hauler Paul Hyek of Fountain Valley, who complained that raising the fee from $10 to $15 for small pickup trucks threatens his ability to make a living.

“People are telling me to ‘Forget it, I’ll do it myself,’ ” Hyek said of his customers. “You’re putting a lot of guys out of business.”

In other board action, there was welcome news for park lovers:

* Supervisors endorsed a plan to keep Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park operating daily--and still save $64,300. The turnabout followed protests over a proposal to close the park two days a week to save money. The county rescheduled park staff and nixed “miscellaneous” operational expenses to keep the park open every day.

* The board approved a plan under which the Santa Margarita Co. gives the county 1,100 acres of South County wilderness in exchange for development rights in Rancho Santa Margarita and the Las Flores tract. County officials earlier said the bankrupt municipality couldn’t afford to manage the parkland, but now an equestrian group has agreed to volunteer its services.

Still to be decided is how much the county may raise park user fees.

Although it is hiking trash fees, the board refused to raise fees from $5 to $10 on passenger cars entering the county’s landfills, which average only seven vehicles a day. Supervisor Jim Silva said the passenger car fee hike, which would generate about $10,000 a year, would be too great a burden on users for such a small return to the county.

But some say keeping those rates low could undercut small haulers by encouraging customers to just load up their trunks and do it themselves rather than pay a hauler.

“No one wants to pay more money,” said John Ortega, who operates a Santa Ana gardening and cleanup service.

County officials estimate that pickup truck drivers such as Hyek represent 37%, or 700, of the vehicles passing through local landfill gates each day.

The hike is unrelated to the bankruptcy, county officials say, but is part of a fee restructuring to help the county recoup its landfill operating costs and prevent larger businesses from subsidizing the trash dumping of smaller businesses.

A few months ago, the county raised fees 54% for major contract trash haulers. Now, with the exception of passenger vehicles, landfill users will pay $35 per ton.

While county officials say the plan achieves equity among most Orange County landfill users, others are bitter that they are facing higher fees as the bankrupt county tries to raise money by enticing out-of-county garbage haulers with cut-rate prices.

Some contracts are being negotiated for as low as $18 a ton and have yet to be approved by the board.

The trash importation plan is a critical part of Orange County’s bankruptcy recovery effort, and it represents the only new source of revenue to help bail out the financially strapped county.

The final hurdle facing the county was formally set aside Tuesday when the board formalized an agreement with San Juan Capistrano to use that city’s landfill for importing trash. The county estimates it can raise up to $22 million a year under the plan.

Many Orange County trash haulers plan to protest the plan because they believe it discriminates against them. County officials, however, say the only way to attract trash haulers from as far away as Arizona is to offer the lowest prices around.