Parcel fees. Price hikes. Property taxes. Gate fees.

Nearly all options will be back on the table when San Juan County officials hunker down three weeks from now to renew their search for a stable source of funding for a solid-waste operation that’s awash in red ink.

One option that no longer appears to be in play, however, is further delay.

“There’s some pressing issues that need to be dealt with and we can’t wait much longer,” County Council Chairman Richard Fralick said. “My hope is that we can get a decision on this soon.”

Fralick noted that the plan for paying for the state-required improvements at the Orcas and San Juan solid-waste facilities are contingent at this point on solid waste division’s ability to sell bonds. Revenue from a bond sale, he added, could also help finance a potential purchase of the solid waste facility on San Juan Island’s Sutton Road from the town of Friday Harbor, which has long-leased a portion of its 26-acre former landfill to the county for its solid waste operation.

Negotiations with the town, Fralick said, are in the final stages and the improvements required by the state, which are expected to cost $1 million or more, are supposed to be in place some time this year.

The solid-waste division is mired in debt, however, $500,000 on the capital side. Its primary source of revenue, the disposal of garbage, has dropped substantially, by nearly 4 million pounds, over the past two years. Despite recent cutbacks in expenses and in service, there’s also a $250,000 deficit to make up in operational, meaning day-to-day, expenses, according to the Department of Public Works.

The council headed back to the drawing board Feb. 9 after quashing its own short-term financing proposal, which relied on a combined 40-plus percent increase in tipping fees and a $2 gate fee, two weeks before. Though they came up empty, council members agreed to take another stab at settling on a long-term funding strategy as part of a two-hour workshop on March 2.

The day before, about 250 islanders converged on the fire hall in Eastsound to protest the closure of the island’s recycling center, The Exchange, at the outset of a council meeting on Orcas Island.

“It was great to see that many people involved in local government, but it was too bad it was based on a rumor,” county council chair Richard Fralick told the Sounder. “We have never discussed closing down the Exchange or the Take It or Leave It on Lopez. We have no plans to do that.”

Among the comments from islanders: If you have a fee, you have completely defeated the purpose of the Exchange; Higher tipping fees would encourage road-side dumping of garbage by those who cannot afford to pay; A general tax is an obvious way to get the revenue; The concept of self-haul is of fundamental importance here on the island; You need a new business model, a new approach that supports reducing the waste stream; The business model is a flawed model: as long as we are dependent on tipping fees we won’t be able to reduce, re-use, and recycle as we should.

Although the county has no plan to close The Exchange, Councilwoman Lovel Pratt noted a consistency among the crowd.

“What I took away from Orcas is that they want a new business model,” she said, “One that doesn’t rely solely on tipping fees.”

Tipping fees account for 98 percent of the revenue the solid-waste division uses each year to pay for all its expenses, including transportation, equipment, repairs and improvements, as well as day-to-day expenses, like payroll. Those fees are the price islanders and the county’s two commercial customers, San Juan Sanitation and the town, pay to dispose of garbage. Recycling, as a cost to the customer, is free.

Pratt and Councilmen Rich Peterson recommended leaving the possibility of a property tax on the table. Peterson said he likes both the “progressive” nature of a property tax and that it would need to be approved by voters. Still, he cautioned that a property tax or a parcel fee could be stalled or ultimately erased by a citizen-led referendum.