Minutes 02-22-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Jacobs asked about the various fees. Gayle Wilson explained this: - Base fee is $37/year - Urban resident with curbside and base fee = $89/year - Rural resident with curbside recycling = $75/year - Rural resident without curbside recycling = $37/year - Multi-family unit with multi-family service = $56/year Commissioner Jacobs asked about the 4R proposal. Gayle Wilson said that they would work with the tax office to design the form and try to treat it just like the current 3R fee. Commissioner Foushee said that the County Commissioners had asked to look at the costs of opening all of the SWCC 6 days a week. Frank Clifton said that would come as part of the budget process. The issue is the cost of staffing. Commissioner Foushee said that she needs that information now in order to provide direction to staff as requested. Commissioner Jacobs said that the Solid Waste Work Group talked about trying to get the larger centers to have longer operational hours. This would provide some assurance that citizens would have a place to go on most any day. Commissioner Yuhasz said that the work group thought that the larger centers that accept all materials would be open six days a week. It was suggested to have some of the centers to stay open until 7:00 p.m. Commissioner McKee said that he is glad to see the proposal of extended hours since this is a long suffering issue for rural residents. He said that these SWCCs are open to all residents to Orange County but what he has a problem with is having the rural residents being charged a higher rate than urban users because of the possibility of less use from the urban residents. Commissioner Hemminger said that a lot of these changes are great ideas, but they may not need them all at once. She asked if staff could prioritize the requests. Commissioner Hemminger said that the number one comment that she has heard from citizens is that they would rather have expanded hours as opposed to improvements. Commissioner Yuhasz pointed out the operating expenses and said that the County is actually saving money in the long run by phasing in improvements. Commissioner Gordon said that she understands the pros and cons, but the budget is so constrained right now. She said that the improvements are fairly costly now. Frank Clifton said that the real issue is the revenue stream to support the extended hours and the other aspects. The primary focus is getting the centers open more and getting the revenue stream to support it. Chair Pelissier said that she does not see this as tied to the current budget since the enterprise fund will take care of it outside of the hours of operation. These improvements can be done without increasing the General Fund expenses. She said that if the fuel costs continue to go up, then the actual savings of the compactors would be even greater. Also, there is a solid waste goal of reducing per capita solid waste stream. She said that food waste is another issue and this would be a step in that direction to make it easier for people to reduce their waste stream. Gayle Wilson said that many of the additional services have little to no costs and simply need a reliable space and oversight to make them happen. He said that improving the district sites will enable significant additional expansion of recycling opportunities and material. Commissioner Jacobs asked about recovering food waste from the school systems.