Agenda - 09-16-2010 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Draft because in the short run at least there is no public facility to which to direct the waste that would help pay for the facility.Franchises can provide significant benefits to the environment through more adherence to local environmental ordinances, efficient routing and increased collection density,enable greater access to service and are likely to reduce operations pressure on the convenience centers which will increase when the landfill closes. Due to the currently reduced hours and services,those pressures are already showing signs of increasing. � Financin ,g desi�and operation of the convenience centers: This may be the single most pressing element of the plan to undertake in the next twelve months and it affects all of the County as all taxpayers support the convenience centers. They are used broadly by urban as well as rural residents,and there is a strain on the general fund as the primary means of funding. When the landfill closes there will be increased pressure on them and the greater hauling MSW distance will result in increased costs. As part of shifting the Convenience Centers to the Enterprise Fund,even if some 3-R fee revenues are shifted to cover some convenience center operating and hauling costs,the long-term upgrades to design and location will have to be funded by new capital that is not now available.Four key issues are under discussion for the convenience centers-- location, design, fmancing and operation.Previous options have been presented of locations using the current five locations or adding a sixth in northeast part of the County if there is a conversion to a districtJneighborhood approach. Design of the centers needs to be upgraded for them to function safely and efficiently. Continued traffic increases and shorter hours of operation and fewer staff inean more conflict between site users and between hauling vehicles and site users. Upcoming longer hauling distances to remote transfer stations once the landfill closes will require more use of compactors for efficient hauling. Changes in design and location are intimately connected to operations issues —should all centers have identical hours, should centers be open on a rotating basis, should some centers have more services than others and function as district centers while others are smaller neighborhood centers? Finally the issue of how to fund the needed designs and changes is critical because the current funding levels do not allow any expansion of services or locations or improved operations while increased traffic demands that these changes be made sooner rather than deferred. In the past fiscal year several services were eliminated and operating hours reduced over 30%due to current budget problems. Additional operating costs result from increased site maintenance,wear and tear on overused small open top dumpsters that fill with water and gravel surfaces that must be continually regarded and pot holes refilled. The Work Group has reviewed three potential scenarios for future Solid Waste Convenience Center design and location. The three scenarios include: l.A districdneighborhood arrangement with two larger district centers that have a full suite of services and four neighborhood centers that have fewer services but are more convenient to the most rural areas. 2.A second scenario fully modernizes four of the five existing centers and maintains essentially the current level of services at all sites with little room for expansion. 45