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City residents asked to weigh in on
recycling |
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January 26, 2012 |
After a two month free trial offered by
Frederickson's Bonners Ferry Garbage, and a
city-funded extension until February 10, the
City of Bonners Ferry wants to know if city
residents are willing to pay increased fees for
easier recycling, or retain current garbage
disposal fees and leave it up to the individual
as to whether solid waste is recycled or merely
hauled to the county landfill.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, the city council
will hold a fee increase hearing in the Bonners
Ferry Visitor's Center to consider between two
fee increases to make it easier for city
residents to recycle or whether to maintain the
status quo.
Recycling now is easier than ever for the
disposers of trash, but for the local gatherer,
be it Frederickson's or the county landfill,
it's an expense ... but one crucial to the
community under federal landfill regulations.
In the mid-1990s, Boundary County Commissioners,
led by former commissioner Orrin Everhart, were
able to obtain a rare Subtitle D exemption to
the federal mandates, enabling the Boundary
County landfill to stay open provided it met and
continued to meet a range of requirements; water
monitoring wells were drilled and monitoring
systems put in place to ensure that the landfill
wasn't degrading local sub-surface water quality
and daily load limits were established. Surpass
those, and the exemption goes away.
If the people of Boundary County want to keep
the local landfill open and avoid the
county-wide cost of closing the landfill, which
would cost millions, and postpone the need of
shipping of the county's garbage to federally
approved transfer points and landfills many
miles and even states away, at significantly
greater expense, they are going to have to reach
a little deeper into their pockets, and a little
deeper into their trash.
According to the current crop of Boundary County
Commissioners, the two people who've supervised
the Solid Waste department since those federal
laws were enacted should be hailed as heroes by
everyone in Boundary County who needs to get rid
of trash.
The late Woody Watts began the transition of the
landfill from the "dump and bury" days of old,
and established policies (and raised fees) that
some thought draconian, to a more streamlined
system under which part of the detrious of
society went into the recycle stream rather than
the waste stream.
While many have never heard of him, Woody's
successor, Claine Skeen, has become a
nationally-known expert in small community solid
waste disposal, quietly but diligently enacting
changes at the landfill ... the introduction of
separate piles for raw wood, processed wood,
metal, appliances, electronics and more ... that
most who haul there don't seem to mind ... it's
kind of fun driving around to the different
piles and putting our trash in it's proper
place.
Instead of a hole in the ground, those who
dispose of routine household trash now back up
to and toss their trash in bins ... which is
then "refined," the wheat separated from the
chaff, largely now by people doing community
service rather than face time in jail.
Very little that goes into those various piles
goes into the ground; the majority of it, thanks
to Skeen's effort, piles up until it becomes
worthwhile for those who can use it to come and
get it.
As a result, the citizens of Boundary County
residents can still most often take their trash
to the dump without paying a fee ... a rarity.
A sizeable part of that trash is generated by
those who live in Bonners Ferry, and who pay a
monthly fee to for the convenience of having
Frederickson's come by once a week and take the
garbage away.
Until this test that began two months ago,
everything went into the back of the truck, got
crushed, and went into a hole at the landfill.
The City of Bonners Ferry wants to know if its
citizens would be willing to pay Fredickson's a
bit more a year to sort out the trash ... an
extra $1.50 a moth to retain the two test sites
at the Bonners Ferry Middle School and the
Panhandle Health parking lot, or if, for a mere
$4.50 more per month, or if the citizens of the
city would like to adopt a curbside recycling
program ... under which Frederickson's would
pick up twice a month, a variety of recyclables
from the many places the now pick up unsorted
trash.
Prior to the March 6 meeting, every city
resident will be getting a questionnaire tucked
in with their electricity bill.
It asks four yes/no questions:
1. Did you recycle before the city placed to two
recycling stations in town:
2. Have the recycling stations increased the recycling
of your household?
3. Would you support a $1.50 increase in garbage fees
to continue the two recycling stations?
4. Would you support a $4.50 increase in garbage rates
for a bi-weekly curbside recycling pick up?
The form also allows personal comments, and
Mayor Dave Anderson, who said he enjoys the
convenience of the city recycling centers, asks
that city residents make their views known, and
not toss the insterion into the garbage can.
No matter how you vote, if you are going to
throw it away ... at least, please, keep it out
of your household garbage and toss it into the
appropriate recycling bin nearest you.
The costs you might save everyone in the county could be your own. |
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