Richland County departments are going to have to refrain from making copies and printing electronic documents unless they have to because of an expected surge in the cost of copy paper.
Central Services Director Rachael Troyer told the board on Tuesday that suppliers are warning vendors that prices are going to go up significantly — possibly by 7% — as of Sept. 1, partly because of the war in Ukraine.
Troyer explained that the problem started in 2009 or 2010 when U.S. paper mills closed because they weren’t making money.
“Now it’s come back to haunt us because a good portion of the paper that comes into the United States is coming from Ukraine, and Ukraine obviously is probably not processing paper right now,” she said.
Troyer told the board that the current supplier, Friends Office of Findlay, has raised the price of standard 8.5-by-12-inch paper, which is the bulk of what the county purchases, by 1.4%. That price is good only through August.
Troyer said Ritter Office Supply in Mansfield is experiencing similar problems and is considering changing suppliers.
Commissioner Cliff Mears said the paper cost issue is close to him because he retired from the publishing and printing business.
“I know a lot of papers we received were from Finland and eastern and western Europe when I was in the business,” Mears said. “Capacity had been an issue for many years but with the labor shortage now and the freight cost, bringing the papers in from Europe is up exponentially.”
Troyer pointed out that many envelopes being sent out now are brown because it costs extra to bleach paper white. She also expects added costs for larger, legal-sized paper and colored paper, which are used by the courts.
“They’re not making colored paper which means what’s in the warehouses is all we’ve got and they’re going to have to rethink what they’re doing,” Troyer said.
She called the situation “a perfect storm” because it not only is going to affect copy paper but it also is going to affect products such as toilet paper and paper towels.
“Anything that has paper in it we are going to see a huge increase, Troyer said. “And then on top of that the fuel.”
Commissioners approved purchasing paper from Friends for August and agreed to revisit pricing again at the end the month.
Commissioners also decided Tuesday to keep the amount of county sales tax revenue it allocates to local cities, villages and townships the same in 2023 as it is this year. Commissioners first approved the revenue sharing plan in 1988 after a one-quarter percent increase in the local permissive sales tax was enacted.
At that time commissioners established $1,514 per local road mile as the base for what the 18 townships and nine municipal governments would receive for road and street repair, maintenance and reconstruction. Any “excess” not used for the county budget is allocated in proportion, although the excess allocation has been cut several times since the 2009 recession.
Vero pointed out that the excess allocation was reduced by 1% in both 2019 and 2020 and went unchanged in 2021 and this year. The excess allocation in 2021 was $564,646.
County Auditor Pat Dropsey asked for a decision because he is getting ready to certify estimated revenue for all subdivisions for 2022.
In other business, commissioners agreed to transfer $50,000 in Community Development Block Grant Funds from a handicap access improvement project at the Renaissance Theatre to a storm sewer improvement project in Plymouth that is receiving CDBG funds. They also approved a $3,867 change order for a storm water and paving project at Dayspring, Richland County’s assisted living facility, because more work needed to be done to remove and replace old paving.