Minutes 02-02-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Speaker 2: Norma White "We are pleased the county's report now shows 5 active convenience centers — including Bradshaw Quarry and Walnut Grove. Thank you Commissioner Jacobs for introducing the notion of "district" and "neighborhood" convenience centers. I hope that it will be many years — if ever— before the county decides to add a neighborhood convenience center on Mincey Road. With this functioning network, and given last year's cuts, we ask that the board place a moratorium on new services or new fees for rural residents. - The county's fiscal climate, supported by OCV's survey, suggests strong and overwhelming opposition to any new services or fees for rural residents. We only surveyed rural residents — but we suspect the sentiment extends to all citizens. o Residents already pay for convenience centers through taxes o Given the fiscal challenges facing the county and its citizens, adding services or fees for solid waste would anger most of the community— particularly as we are still adjusting to the convenience center schedule cuts and service changes - The proposed expansion of bi-weekly rural recycling is not supported by rural residents and was questioned by the SWWG in November. o The proposed expansion would mandate a non-essential service and additional fee to 1,000 remote rural households — most of whom are satisfied with convenience center service o There is no basis for county's claim that reduced convenience center hours will reduce recycling o If the county were to add services or fees, we believe that residents would prefer to see Sundays restored to the convenience center schedules — particularly at Walnut Grove Church Road where there are often lines on Saturday. - The notion of waste franchises for rural garbage collection has been questioned by SWWG members which are documented in a workgroup memo dated November 17, 2009 but not in your reports. Today garbage collection is available to every rural resident or community and there is no need for county involvement or new fees. A list of qualified vendors, including those that provide backdoor service to residents that live on gravel roads with long driveways is on the OCV website - There's another workgroup topic—whether or not to modernize convenience centers particularly Walnut Grove and Eubanks. This means pave them, add compactors, and other improvements at roughly $1 million per center. Isn't this a simple financial decision? It could be a good idea but if it is not self-funding, can the county afford it? The convenience centers are clean, safe, and effective and highly valued by rural residents. There seems to be more than enough capacity for the foreseeable future. Money is tight for the county and its citizens, and despite last year's service cuts, residents are satisfied with the current level of service. This is not the time to discuss any new services or fees. We respectfully ask the Board to inform the Solid Waste Work Group that the county will not add new solid waste services or fees for rural residents for the foreseeable future."