Solid Waste Advisory Commission

Athens-Clarke County Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting of the Solid Waste Citizens Advisory Committee Wednesday, May 20, 2020 via WebEx Present at Meeting: Commissioner Andy Herod, Commissioner Patrick Davenport, Larry Dendy, Michael Brugger, Abigail West, Suki Janssen, Joe Dunlop, Mason Towe, and Susan Lyon (minutes). I. Welcome Commissioner Herod called the meeting to order at 5:38 pm. II. Approval of Minutes: February 19, 2020 Michael made a motion to approve minutes; seconded by Patrick, approved unanimously. III. Public Comments - None IV. Division Reports (ATTACHMENT I & II) Suki reviewed Division reports in Attachments I and II. Additional Divisional information: -A RFI (Request for Information) was sent to businesses on March 12, 2020 who may be interested in taking over the private operation of the MRF. Our current contract with Republic will expire October, 2021. Due to COVID, the deadline was extended three times. Five responses were received: Waste Pro, Pratt, West Rock, Commodities Eval Services, Republic Services. The SPLOST-funded portion of the new MRF is figured into the RFI request. -CHaRM is re-opened by appointment only for the safety of staff and customers. Appointments can be made online on the ACCSW website. -The Landfill saw an increase of 20% residential traffic, so staff set up an appointment only system for residential customers and closed on Saturdays to control the flow of people for social distancing purposes. Saturday operation will resume May 23, 2020 by appointment only. -ACC SW collection is one of the only municipalities in the state to maintain all services during COVID. Protective supplies have been issued and safety measures (staggered shifts, 1 person per truck) have been put into place to protect staff. -Composting food scraps are down. Two (2) weeks into the Pandemic, the compost screener caught fire. All compost that was available has been sold. Looking to purchase another screener within the next two month. -Mayor and Commission recommended KACCB to be removed from the Recycling Enterprise fund and moved to the General Fund. Recycling will follow the same change over the next two (2) years. V. Other Business - Patrick expressed interest in collaborating with KACCB to clean litter off Bailey St. Discussion on how to engage community to clean-up the street and maintain it. Is the street on the KACCB Hot Spot list? Is it adopted through the Adopt-A-Highway program? Can it be added to River’s Alive as a site clean-up? KACCB will be given Patrick’s questions and suggestions for follow-up. -Jared inquired about how to obtain car tags with cameras at recycling sites to catch illegal dumping. The Mayor & Commission have requested camera information from SW staff be sent to the Manager’s Office, to then be forwarded to M&C. -Larry would like for the Manager’s Office to pursue a meeting with the UGA Athletic Department to request financial assistance for trash/recycling clean-up during home football weekends.  -Patrick would like to wait until another meeting to have further discussions on plastic straws due to time constraints. VI. Next meeting is scheduled for August 19, 2020. Jared made a motion to adjourn the meeting; Patrick seconded; and the meeting was adjourned at 6:39 pm. Respectfully submitted by Susan Lyon: 09.02.20 Approved by committee 09.02.20