Agenda - 09-13-2005-3 - Laserfiche WebLink

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-14- Administration Division In general, having a paid staff of trained assistants who the department can trust to give the "right answers" to the public as part of outreach and who know trash and can be relied on to show up and work (due to being paid a decent wage) is critical to the department's ability to provide the intensive and extensive face to face outreach that makes programs effective. Specifically: 0 The department would not be able to effectively conduct public recycling at major street fairs and festivals as the department relies heavily on the paid part time help to assist the Recycling Specialist during those events. The task of picking through the recycling to remove trash and garbage waste, and to sort the recyclables for the 10 hours of the Festifall and Apple Chill and 13 hours of Hog Day would not attract reliable and constant volunteers. The department has tried operating in the past solely with volunteers with unacceptable results. This is especially true for Hog Day when it's usually quite warm out. The department would also be pressed to set up and staff every event just for informational purposes. These events are full day events beginning at about 11 am and ending past 7 pm for the Chapel Hill Festivals and about a 14 -hour day for Hog Day. Temporary assistants also staff other smaller events such as the Carrboro Family 4th and Carrboro Day. The program begun last fiscal year of doing door -to -door intensive outreach and education at apartment complexes that have serious contamination problems or are under - performing would be severely diminished if not completely ended, if temporary staff were not available. It is again difficult to rely solely on volunteers and ensure they are properly trained in the art of 'door-to-door as well as the nuances of apartment recycling and related issues, Also, some of the apartment complexes have large numbers of Spanish speaking residents that require Spanish speaking temporary employees. The department targets low performing complexes (last year the department contacted people at over 2,600 apartment units), Generally there were improvements in recycling quality following the outreach efforts that, based on experience, would not have been so effective with only unpaid volunteers. Temporary staff also are used for special outreach projects such as evaluating curbside recycling activity in a targeted neighborhood and conducting bin set out surveys every week for five weeks with follow -up mail surveys and phone surveys, as there is no time for permanent staff to conduct these. These surveys are used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Solid Waste programs and services. Additionally, the department presently is using a temporary employee to assist staff and the Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB) in its analysis and rewriting of Orange County's Solid Waste Management Plan, due to be submitted to the State next June,