Wednesday, November 11, 2009

County mulls takeover of recycling center

Operations would remain the same


By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer

Blaine County commissioners continue to deliberate on a potential takeover of the management of the Resource Recovery Center, a recycling facility in Ohio Gulch.

At a meeting Tuesday at the Old Blaine County Courthouse, the commission resumed a discussion started in mid-September, but held off on making a decision for at least another week.

The recycling center is operated by Southern Idaho Solid Waste, which manages the Ohio Gulch Transfer Station along with the solid waste operations of six other counties in the waste district.

However, the Resource Recovery Center is the only recycling facility in the district run by the contractor rather than by the county itself, one of the main arguments for the proposed change.

According to Southern Idaho Solid Waste Finance Officer Stephanie Thompson, the Resource Recovery Center's fiscal 2010 budget is $172,640, with anticipated revenue of $49,000. The county will fund the difference.

Commission Chairman Larry Schoen said Southern Idaho Solid Waste would like to extricate itself from the existing arrangement and focus solely on solid waste management.

Resource Recover Center Manager Brett Gelskey agreed with Schoen's analysis.

"The recycling center has always been like the district's stepchild," Gelskey said. "It's not a recycling management company, it's a solid waste management company."

Schoen said that while such a move could improve recycling, the county would still be subject to market forces that affect recycling. Currently, the recycling program is funded by fees from the waste transfer station.

Gelskey said the change would be almost entirely an administrative change and would not affect operations at the center. That was echoed by County Administrator Derek Voss, who was asked by the commission to analyze the change.

"There's very little to prohibit [the county] from moving forward quickly if you want," Voss said. "We'll just have to do it well and communicate well."

While the commission is slated to continue the discussion next Tuesday, it is unlikely to decide on the matter until it receives details requested by Commissioner Tom Bowman on ways the county can improve operation of the center.

Voss said the county should re-evaluate the business model of the recycling center, but that that analysis would likely take months.

"We can't assume that it's all been done correctly and is in line with our community's vision," Voss said.

Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com




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