Minutes 05-26-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner McKee said that he is glad they are increasing hours on Sunday at two sites. He suggested switching one of the open days to a Sunday for the Bradshaw Quarry Road site. He would like to see all of the SWCCs open on Sundays. Michael Talbert went through the highlights of the Solid Waste budget. To accomplish the additional hours, there are two additional FTEs. One is a 0.75 and the other is a 0.50. In addition, there are non-permanent hours that would be increased to make up the difference. There will be no major increases in transportation costs. Commissioner McKee said that the great majority of the citizens in Orange County look at solid waste and the convenience centers as a core service. He thinks that they have come to expect a limited amount of services for their taxes, but they expect these core services. If the centers are going to be called convenience centers, they really should be convenient for the citizens. Commissioner Jacobs said that it was brought up at one of the budget public hearings that the public did consider this a core service and that it should be a part of the General Fund. Frank Clifton said that the bottom line is that there has to be a revenue source. In this case, there is a two-fold purpose. One is to cover the additional cost of keeping the units open longer and the second one is to begin to develop more efficient units. Commissioner Yuhasz said that the fee was a recommendation of the Solid Waste Work Group and is a good alternative to pay-as-you-throw. Commissioner Jacobs said that a citizen asked him about energy efficient light bulbs and the fact that citizens have to dispose of them at the Eubanks site only. He asked if the SWCC will be able to provide this same service. Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson said that there are some space constraints at some of the centers. He said that Walnut Grove is the first of the convenience centers that are being proposed to be modernized. Commissioner Jacobs said that since the federal government is mandating these bulbs, then maybe there should be something in the interim so that people have a place to put them until one of the convenience centers is modernized. Commissioner Jacobs said that several County Commissioners were at the Eno Haven dedication and he was shocked that a 70+unit apartment complex in Orange County would have no component for recycling built into it. He asked if there were standards for this. Gayle Wilson said that he has a staff inember who is involved in developmental review in all of the jurisdictions and part of the review process is to make sure that storage for recyclables is provided. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the fund balance and it was answered $13 million. Commissioner Gordon asked about the cost of modernizing Walnut Grove and Gayle Wilson said $850,000. Commissioner McKee asked about the closure date of the landfill and the improvements at the Walnut Grove SWCC. He has questioned this expenditure before and he continues to question it along the lines of the County Commissioners have not set a definitive date for the closure of the landfill. He would prefer to see the improvements pushed back a year because of the operating expense and debt service and it would allow time to decide if the improvements make sense in relation to when the landfill is closed. Gayle Wilson said that unless the landfill closes in the next couple of years, they are on a site modernization trajectory where all of the sites would be improved about the time the landfill closed if they did one per year. They will have to be careful to not cross the line and make the sites transfer stations, or there will be State regulations that come into play as well as additional costs. He said that the best case scenario for landfill closure is 4-5 years. This would allow each site to be improved each year and all of the money would not have to be borrowed at one time.