Wayne County Life

By John Addyman

   

   LYONS (Sep 13 10) – Wayne County will try to decide once and for all – again – if it’s going to be in the recycling business or not. Two special meetings have been called later this month to settle things.

   It’s clear that members of the board of supervisors don’t want to be in the business, but in last week’s public hearing on the subject, it was just as clear that people in the community want the county to collect recyclables.

   Not one person in the Thursday night public hearing told the supervisors to stop recycling. But supervisors are confronted with a $1.4 budget item next year, what County Administrator Jim Marquette terms a “subsidy” for the program. The Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) will need renovation work in two years, and the curbside collection trucks are barely running – their replacements will cost half a million dollars.

   But residents and recycling system supporters argue that although the county will save money, each homeowner in turn will pay more to recycle because private haulers will now be responsible for the program. Those who spoke Thursday believe private haulers will  charge more in fees than residents now pay in taxes for the service.

   Galen Supervisor Steve Groat also warns that many of the small private haulers will go out of business because they won’t be able to afford the extra equipment to handle recyclables. His subliminal message is that with fewer competitors, fees can rise even more.

    Now the county will take two procedural steps – first, to have the matter vetted one more time in the Economic Development Committee on Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 9 a.m. It’s assumed the committee will vote to bring a resolution to the entire board. To act on that resolution, a second step, a special meeting of the entire board supervisors, has been scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 28, at 9 a.m.

   Supervisor Board Chairman Jim Hoffman (Williamson) said today the matter should have come to the board to begin with. “We could have had a separate resolution and voted on it Thursday night,” he said.

   Because there was no resolution on Thursday night, procedural rules called for a two-thirds majority of members’ votes to bring it to the floor for a vote. Five supervisors voted against that, and the matter sat on the table.

   “We’re going to collect all the recent information in committee and it (the amended local law taking the county out of the curbside recyclables collection business) may possibly be adopted in the additional board meeting,” said Hoffman.