It would cost $7.5 million to build a Bedminster composting plant and $1.5 million to operate a 100-ton facility for the first year, engineer Wayne LaBiche said.

Iberia Parish already has $1.4 million set aside to begin building it, Finance Director Kim Segura said. The half-cent rural sales tax for rural-area garbage brought in $2,500,485 in 2006, Sales and Use Tax Director Pat Segura said Thursday.

That would seem to cover the first-year expenses.

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But questions were asked again at an Iberia Parish Council Public Health and Safety Committee meeting Wednesday: Do taxpayers want to increase the garbage sales tax from a half-cent to possibly 1 cent to pay for increasing landfill and garbage pickup costs? Or would they prefer the tax remain the same and allow the parish to build a Bedminster composting facility?

With a big increase in garbage collection on the horizon in two years — at least double, by parish estimates — the issue is now at a crossroads and must be dealt with, members said this week.

Iberia Parish would be the only Louisiana parish to house a Bedminster type of facility.

To help the council make a decision, LaBiche gave the panel estimates on constructing the facility and projected operating costs. Members will study the numbers until the Feb. 7 Finance Committee meeting.

It should then go to the Public Works Committee, Finance Committee Chairman Bernard Broussard said.

“I think within a few weeks we’ll see whether we can afford it or not,” Broussard said Thursday.

“Looking at revenues that are being generated from existing taxes, I think we can make the numbers work,” he said. “The other thing is, the council is going to have to make the decision as to where they want to site this. Once we decide this, then we need to try to permit it (with the Department of Environmental Quality). Until that is answered all the other discussion is almost irrelevant.”

Bedminster uses a high-heat process to turn garbage into usable compost. Proponents said it reduces landfills by up to 75 percent. It has cost about $650,000 to research over the years in Iberia Parish.

Councilman Lloyd Brown said Bedminster was the wave of the future because landfills are quickly filling up and fewer are opening. Brown visited the Nantucket, Mass., Bedminster site along with Councilwoman Maggie Daniels in October. Both were impressed by the process.

Not everyone agrees. The issue has stalled for years, and neighbors and business interests that surround any proposed site come out by the dozens to protest any discussion about the matter.

Two sites are being considered. One is near the jail. The other is adjacent to the city sewer plant off Louisiana 14.

Council members have several options, LaBiche said.

The council could kill the project. Members could move it forward as planned, find a site and direct the engineer to make the application to the DEQ. They could delay a decision beyond February as members decide whether to spend $7.5 million to build it. Or they could contract with Bedminster and let that company own it and operate it.

A vote for or against Bedminster would seem to split the 14-member council. Broussard, Daniels, Brown, Councilmen Ray Fremin Jr., Caesar Comeaux and Naray Hulin have lauded Bedminster. Councilman George Gros and others like the technology but worry whether the parish could afford it.

“As far as the betterment of Iberia Parish as a whole, I’m in favor of it,” Hulin said Thursday. “But if we don’t build it, the taxpayers will pay the bill for garbage, which will go up double. The sales tax could possibly go to 1 cent. If we don’t go approve it, we’ll just have to continue landfilling.”

Waste Management picks up the garbage and brings it to its Livonia site.

Another issue is the rural taxing district, which is sure to shrink as New Iberia grows, Broussard said. If the parish would bond the approximately $450,000 annual cost for land-loan outlays and capital costs for Bedminster, Broussard wants to ensure the money is there “20 years down the road.”

Parish attorney Eric Duplantis told Parish President Will Langlinais Wednesday if the bond is sold at a certain time, then that bond would be paid no matter what happens to rural areas, at least for the life of the bond.

“I talked to Wayne (LaBiche) last night, and he says the same thing. We need to move on this,” Hulin said. “I don’t have a problem with the (Bedminster) process. The problem I see the council having is the location. But it’s up to the taxpayers and the voters. They have to tell me how to vote.”