County solid waste five-year plan preparation lurches forward

By LARRY SEE JR.
Messenger Staff

Progress continues on Meade County’s proposed five-year solid waste plan after another committee meeting last week.

Most of the plan just needs minor updates, solid waste employee Gayle Parr said.

Meade County solid waste coordinator Mark Gossett, at an earlier meeting, said the plan, which goes to the state for review and approval, needs to be as accurate as possible.

The county’s last plan was drafted in 2002 and was in effect from 2003 until this year. The new plan is due in Frankfort by Oct. 1.

Since the Fiscal Court rejected all solid waste refuse bids, state officials informed Gossett he can list that process as ongoing, and they won’t have to worry about the October deadline.

State officials have a three-month window to review the plan and, barring changes, it will take effect in January 2008.

According to state statute, each part of the existing plan should be reviewed and discussed. This includes the governing body designation, collection, disposal, open dump elimination, litter control, enforcement, siting issues and the program’s source of revenue.

Gossett said the county’s plan will not need to deal with siting issues as refuse is taken to the Hardin County landfill.

Committee member Gerry Lynn suggested members ought to suggest neighboring counties as possible locations for refuse in case contract negotiations fall through with Hardin in the future.

“It would be good to check and see if others will allow it,” he said.

Considerable discussion focused on alternative approaches to recycling.

Gossett said the major portion of this area would be education, including educating residents to recycle their waste rather than setting it out for curbside pickup.

Program strengths, according to the committee, would be eliminating roadside dumps and making for a cleaner county.

Other strengths include keeping garbage out of sinkholes and not burning it, causing air pollution.

Committee members also discussed the possibility of satellite recycling centers, possibly monitored by hidden cameras, to curb vandalism.

E-scrap, or electronic scrap, such as computers and other electronic devices, was also suggested as a possible program.

Gossett said the e-scrap program has been discussed at several state waste association meetings, but it never seems to take hold. Members suggested possibly reviewing what other counties do in regard to this area.

Some of the ideas suggested for the county’s action plan were increasing the county’s use of recycling by 20 percent and working to increase pickups at area businesses.

The ICE method, or information, communication and education, was strongly suggested as a way to promote the recycling program.

One of the suggestions made by committee member Debbie Troutman was getting area schoolchildren more involved, perhaps through writing of essays for the local media promoting recycling.

Gossett took her idea one step further, adding there was a special week set aside called “Commonwealth Clean-up Week” and they could expand on that as a way to promote recycling. One idea suggested was possibly doing a recycling competition among the area schools.

As far as the financial mechanisms, that is subject to change, as Fiscal Court is rebidding the refuse collection service. (See related story in this edition).

Gossett also said the plan needed to be available for public review for 30 days. In addition, a notice of the plan’s review availability must be published in a local newspaper.

The third committee member, who wasn’t present at the meeting, is Dennis Farmer. Fiscal Court representatives are Herbie Chism and Mark Hubbard.

Since Meade County doesn’t have a solid waste board, the state mandates this committee be formed, which will recommend the plan to Fiscal Court.