Ashland City Council
Work Session Minutes
May 24, 2007
Thursday May 24, 2007, 7:00 p.m. Council Conference Room
Purpose: To Discuss:
1. Sanitation landfill costs- presentation.
2. Park Operations – Tim Clingan presentation
– Problems; make funding decisions.
3. Corridor fund set up.
4. Transit update – how it has evolved over the
years.
Attendance:
Council members: Bob Valentine W1, Bob Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
Wertz, Glen Stewart
Mayor: William Strine
City Engineer: Jim Cooper
Assistant to the Engineer: Larry Paxton
Human Resources: Cherie Helterbridle
Water/Sanitation: Curt Young
Finance Director: Anna Tomasek
Council Clerk: Valarie Bishoff
Media: T-G Darcie Loreno
Others : The public
Council President Glen Stewart opened the work session at 7:00 p.m.
Roll Call: Robert Valentine 1, Robert Valentine 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Pledge of Allegiance:
Mayor Strine- The first item is Sanitation landfill
costs-presentation. I discussed this with Curt Young and I told
him I didn’t think we were ready for a presentation as such until
I get a feeling from Council where we want to go on this, so I
basically on this one, wanted to throw out and try to give a background
on where we are and whenever anybody wants to, just jump in, but my
dilemma right now is by position I am on the Ashland County Solid Waste
district board and that is managed by Dan Scott, the Solid waste
district and dealing with all of that is managed by Dan Scott.
And he has come to the committee which is a combination of the
commissioners, myself and some township people and he has asked that
over the next 4-5 years that committee approve $1.00 dollar a year
increase on the tipping fee. And the tipping fee is at $6.50 now
Curt? That would end up at $10.50 and if I vote for that and if the
committee votes for that and approves it, that means that eventually it
is going to affect the City sanitation department because that will
increase the cost, I believe in the area of about $15,000.00 dollars
for every dollar that it has increased. So you can see over 4
years you are talking $60,000.00 dollars so eventually that is going to
mean at rate increase and we need to determine if we want to continue
recycling which ties into this and if we want to continue recycling, we
have to determine we want to do that and then study how all of the
effect of this will effect the rates. There are so many things
that enter into this. And so based on just the short discussion
tonight, I would like Curt then to get a presentation together that
would answer all of their questions. It gets very complicated on
how we pay for all of this.
Robert L. Valentine Ward 1- Now you’re talking about $ 1.00 for
the next 4 years?
Glen Stewart - $ 1.00 per year.
Robert L. Valentine Ward 1- and the rational is? Gas prices?
Mayor Strine- Dan Scott, maybe have Dan Scott answer your questions.
Glen Stewart- I don’t recall that Dan proposed this increase last
year.
Robert Valentine W1- no he didn’t.
Mayor Strine- In the long-term plan that this committee puts together
for the Ohio EPA does not have this in it. We have a 15-year plan
and that plan did not include these rates going up. Now Dan is
saying that we need to do that and we have to listen to him so he can
explain.
Robert Valentine W1- They lost that $50,000.00 dollar Grant, you were
aware of that. What was that, one to two years ago?
Mayor Strine- It takes a lot of studying this and understanding to make
an educated decision on it.
Robert Valentine W1- We are discussing this. I don’t know how
other cities do it, but I think we probably have as good as a recycling
program in our City than other places. What you really want to
find out is how much are we saving by doing that?
Mayor Strine- No. What I really want to find out is whether
Council wants to leave our system the way it is. And if we do
then determine whether you want to pay more for it.
Robert Valentine W1- If you want to eliminate recycling you have to,
well I am not saying you will be doing that, but if you want to,
you have to find out how much that actually is keeping out of the
landfill.
Mayor Strine- sure, that would be one of the issues. If we
stopped recycling, that means more would go into the landfill. Sure
that is right.
Glen Stewart- So the tip fee is for every ton of sanitation, I am
talking regular garbage we take out there we are paying currently 6.50
per ton plus whatever the dump site charges. This is only a piece
of it. That $6.50 goes back to the Solid Waste to our Solid Waste
system. There is nothing lost. It is collected and sent
directly to our solid waste site. How many tons of recyclables do we
take to the solid waste center? And that would equate to additional
tons if we didn’t recycle. That tonnage would go into the
landfill at $6.50 plus whatever the dumpsite charges.
Curt Young- In the conversations I have had with Dan, we concur on the
fact that we could probably increase recycling somewhat. I
don’t have his figures in front of me. We both agree we probably
could do more to increase recycling.. Other cities have
accomplished an increase in the recyclables to keep it out of a
landfill.
Glen Stewart – I have grave concern of an increase of over 50%
over 4 years. A $4.00 increase is in excess of 50% increase of
the current rate.
Paul Wertz- Then what happens to the landfill fees? Do they keep
going up every now and then or not?
Curt Young- They do. One fee that changes on a monthly basis is
the fuel recovery fee. That is a way for them to recover their
expenses once a month. They look at the price of fuel I have
invoices on hand and you can go back and see how those change on a
monthly basis.
Paul Wertz- How often does the landfill rates go up in the last 10
years? How many times have they gone up, do you have any idea?
Curt Young- In the last 10 years, I don’t, I just have the
current contract and they are scheduled for another increase in
September of this year.
Mayor Strine- I just want to explain again, Curt is not prepared
for this. He can get those answers.
Paul Wertz- How often do they increase their rate, the landfill.
Ruth Detrow- The idea is, if we improve our recycling, it might not
require so much of an increase? I mean do those two things go
together?
Mayor Strine- The more recyclables we have the more he could sell, so
therefore the more money he would make.
Robert L. Valentine W1- you have to be defensible too and why do they
want this rate increased?
Mayor Strine- And I think that Dan is ready to make a
presentation. One issue you need to think about in all of
this is that the State requires of this Solid waste district which is
Ashland County certain goals to meet, they have to meet certain goals
as far as recycling and the City of Ashland does most of the recycling,
therefore we meet the goals of the EPA as a County.
Glen Stewart- So if we back out of it, there would be a real problem.
Ruth Detrow- I also need to be refreshed on this. I know that the
City and the County are in this district, but how do we pay for our
membership?
Mayor Strine- there is no payment for membership other than the overall
operation of it.
Ruth Detrow- what is this increase then?
Mayor Strine- the increase is in order that more money will come back
to the recycling center for new equipment, more
employees. I am not saying that specifically. It is
to operate the recycling center. He needs more money.
Glen Stewart- not to be argumentative, but the question is, if we get
better at recycling, there would be fewer tons going to the landfill
but their operational costs would increase because of more material.
Mayor Strine- well the theory is that they can handle more recyclables
without more.
Glen Stewart- So they are not up to their max?
Ruth Detrow- Recycling does not pay for itself.
Mayor Strine- not even close.
Robert Valentine W1- We are probably one of the few, maybe one of the
smallest solid waste districts in the State. Because when we did
this I remember. We were very fortunate too. We built the
recycling center; we got that from a Grant. We were the only
County to get it ($342,000.00) dollars.
Glen Stewart – Mayor do you have an idea of when this request may
come before the committee?
Mayor Strine- It has already come before the committee in a different
form. He withdrew it and said up to the $4.00 increase over 4
years and says we need to meet again and so I think he is kind of
waiting on us.
Robert Valentine W1- Well he does a good job down there. They
have been able to update that equipment over a period of years with a
lot of Grants.
Glen Stewart- Well, we have put a lot of money into it. We are a
major subscriber through the recycling process in the City of Ashland.
Robert Valentine W1- the point is, we are talking of a $30,000.00,
40,000.00, $50,000.00 dollar piece of equipment here.
Glen Stewart- We have some of those in the trucks we bought down there.
My point is that we are a major supporter of the recycling
center. I would like to see Mr. Scott make a presentation to this
Council before it is voted on by committee. Probably we could do
that following a Council meeting. It would not have to be over
½ hour or so, I wouldn’t think, would you?
Robert Valentine W1- Then Curt would have all the figures?
Mayor Strine- I would guess we are talking closer to 1 hour. If
it is all right, I will call Dan and see as soon as he can get ready
and I will put it on your schedule. Tuesday June 12 we have a
Work Session on Sidewalks.
Glen Stewart- Well, why don’t we put Dan in on Tuesday June 12,
2007, I hadn’t been filled in on what the cycle time is on this
survey, so if it is not going to be back until after 6/15/07, my
recommendation is that we bring Dan in on 6/12/07 and if there is any
other presentations you want to make that night, there
could be a second update.
Mayor Strine- Before we are through with tonight’s agenda, we
might.
Robert M. Valentine W2- So then we have to reschedule the sidewalks
after June 15, 2007? I think we ought to do that now so it does
not slide.
Mayor Strine- Could we have the sidewalks on June 19, 2007 as part of
the regular Council meeting? That is the 3rd Tuesday.
Glen Stewart- Yes, we can do Sidewalks following the regular meeting.
Robert L. Valentine W1- That is on June 19, 2007?
Glen Stewart- Valarie, you will have to make sure that this gets to the
media of the changes. That Work Session of sidewalks would probably
start somewhere between 7:45 and 8:15 p.m. and could vary
greatly. We are going to get Dan in then?
Mayor Strine- Yes, I will let you know tomorrow via e-mail.
Glen Stewart- I am sorry, I don’t know your name, are you here
for a specific reason?
Brad Bowman, 214 E. 11th St. Ashland, Ohio- No. I am just here to
listen.
Glen Stewart – Okay. You are welcome to chime in, just
raise your hand if you want to comment as well as anyone else who is
here obviously. We will move on.
Mayor Strine- Park Operations- What I wanted to talk about there is
another area where we need to concentrate on and study very carefully
because generally speaking we are getting to the point in the Park
system that Tim does not have enough income to continue the good
operation that we have had. He is at the breaking point I guess;
I don’t know how to put it. We have over the last 10 years,
maybe, we more and more counted on his capital projects coming from the
capital improvement fund and I would like to have Tim, he is getting
prepared for a presentation also. He is not ready yet. I am
only bringing this up so if there is any information, that you can
think of off of the top of your head, you specifically want that Tim
can get for you, otherwise he will just be making a presentation.
Of course we can have a follow up meeting too after that. I just
want to bring to your attention that it is an issue we need to address.
Ruth Detrow- He is going to tell us what the short fall is in the
various divisions?
Glen Stewart- I think all of you have heard, the Park System had gotten
a major Thank You for the good Soccer facility by some out-of-town
people. You cannot keep that level of maintenance up if you are
running out of horsepower.
Mayor Strine- For instance, since you bring that up. Some of our
Ball diamonds, and I imagine Bob you are aware of it; they need worked
on. You know over the years, as you work on them, and all of a
sudden you have these big humps at the back of them, just a lot of
things.
Robert M. Valentine W2- They did Brookside, it has been a few years
back. What we did up at the High School. My boy Matt,
played there. We hired somebody to come in with the Grater.
They came in and grated that all out of there. It cost us money
but the Parents Club paid for it, not the School. Some of our
fund raising money.
Robert L. Valentine W1- We’re in not that position now.
Robert M. Valentine W2 – All I am saying is, back when I was in
the Pony League, we used to have work days, you remember Paul; the kids
all came in, you picked up rocks, you raked, you shoveled. They
were using the fields and if you had a little free time, you worked on
them.
Glen Stewart- I guess that would be a point that Tim might want to
bring up. Who are the users of the facilities, yes children,
kids, teenagers, but there is some organizational use; whether it be
High School or Traveling Leagues, or whatever it might be. It
would be good to identify the users.
Mayor Strine- Also, I guess for just a second I would like to skip (c)
and come back to that but (d) the Transit update, that is also another
thing that I am just bringing to your attention now. But we do
need to have a Work Session on it because that is something that just
keeps growing and growing. You need to be aware of it. It
is a tremendous service for those folks who need it but it is also
costly. We get a lot of money from the Federal and the State but
last year we paid $139,000.00 too out of the General Fund for it.
Robert L. Valentine W1- You said it was going to be what this year?
Anna Tomasek- This year, we have appropriation of $40,000.00 dollars
but looking at its fund balance and expenses that we are anticipating;
we are only going to transfer $9,000.00 dollars to cover the
City’s share of the vehicles. Only $9000.00 dollars.
Glen Stewart- that is a huge difference $139,000.00 and $9000.00.
What can you tell me about it?
Anna Tomasek- Basically the FTE and the State has been reducing its
Grant money and they have been working on 1985 dollars from a certain
point of time. Due to T21 the Federal Government released some
Grant moneys in 2006 and we got a significant revenue increase last
year. Right now the Transit fund has a positive fund balance that
it does not need that $ 40,000.00 transfer that we were anticipating
getting a year.
Robert L. Valentine W1- so we have got those Grants from last year and
this year?
Anna Tomasek- we were anticipating the State to continue cutting the
funds. They are trying to bring the State Transit office and the
FTE is trying to bring back its Transit funding and we have received
word that we are going to receive an additional FTA and State. We
received a portion of it in 2006 and again we are going to receive
additional Grant money in 2007.
Robert L. Valentine W1- so then the $ 9000.00 dollars you are talking
about is for 2007 or 2008?
Anna Tomasek- 2007. That is at our 10% out of the general fund paid for
the city’s share of the two vehicles you just approved. The
LTN and the Converter Van.
Glen Stewart- so there are no other dollars from the City’s total
budget other than $9000.00 dollars anticipated to go to support the
Transit fund?
Anna Tomasek - Direct revenue, yes that is correct.
Glen Stewart- Bear with me Anna; I do not know what direct
revenue means. Out of our total $ 53,000,000.00 million dollar
budget, or whatever it is; there is only $9000.00 dollars going towards
the Transit?
Anna Tomasek- yes that is correct.
Mayor Strine – Anna are there any salaries that come out.
Anna Tomasek- there are indirect costs.
Glen Stewart- Wait, I want to know what it costs to run the
Transit. I don’t care if it is indirect, direct or
what. How much does it cost the city in the 2007 budget to do
whatever it takes to make these transit vehicles to pick up people and
transport them? Do you hear what I am saying?
Mayor Strine- I think in all fairness to Anna, that at our Work
Session, she should answer that when we are ready for that. How
long do you think it would take you Anna to get that?
Anna Tomasek- About 1 week. I have the information, I just want
to get it straight. Grand total costs?
$ 9000.00 dollars is only for the City.
Mayor Strine- One thing that you would enter into that and an example
of what she is talking about is; their office is in the City’s
building and they do not pay anything for that.
Anna Tomasek- Your entire cost and the indirect cost to operate the
Transit system.
Glen Stewart- Does that answer your questions about cost?
Ruth Detrow- this is probably something totally different, at the last
Transit meeting, we discussed do we want to raise fares or not to cover
costs.
Anna Tomasek- that is a totally different program than what we are
talking about, that is a coordination ACCT, those are trips in the
county. There is no money from the City. It is all from
County CDBG, the Stare of Ohio and county social agencies
contribute. There is no cash in the City of Ashland that goes
towards ACCT.
Glen Stewart- I am going to raise another question. Anna, as the
Director of Finance, how does the Transit system end up reporting to
the Director of Finance rather than an appointed Division Director?
Mayor Strine- Technically it doesn’t, technically it reports to
the Mayor. Back when that started, it was; Nancy Boyd who took on
the responsibility of that and that is when I was still in the Finance
office and so Nancy handled it.
Anna Tomasek- the mayor’s office is the direct grantee; he signs
all of the contracts, reviews everything and it is a collaboration
between the finance division and the Mayor’s division. All
authorizational reports are signed by the Mayor. The actual daily
operations the management paying the bills, reviewing invoices, taking
care of the vehicles, overseeing the contract, making sure they are in
compliance with the contractors done by the Finance Division.
Robert Valentine W1- But basically Nancy did it.
Glen Stewart- Is that a good process?
Anna Tomasek- It has worked.
Glen Stewart- Does it have any problems with Audits? Simply
because someone else authorizes payments and so on?
Anna Tomasek- correct.
Mayor Strine- That could be one issue. Let’s set a date,
probably at the end of July. July 10th? That is the
second Tuesday of the month.
John Chorpening- Are there fees collected for that?
Anna Tomasek- there are Fare bucks and contracts collected by the
Transportation Department.
John Chorpening- It is not just where somebody pays for a ride?
Anna Tomasek- Yes.
John Chorpening- Does that money go back to the Transit?
Anna Tomasek- It stays in the Transportation fund. It is
receipted in fund 244 Transportation fund.
Glen Stewart- Does everyone have that down in the July 10, 2007 Work
Session?
William E. Strine- now the last one, back to item (c). I would
like to have some discussion tonight on this, it is dealing with the
Corridor improvements. I guess we need to maybe try and clarify what
all us mean when we say corridor improvements. If we set up a
fund to somehow help improve the corridor.
Robert L. Valentine W1 – The only question that I have about that
is, do we have a permanent improvement fund?
Mayor Strine – Nothing named that. What type of fund
would you be thinking of Bob?
Ruth Detrow- Like Schools have a permanent improvement fund and
something that goes into it has to have an anticipated life of 15-20
years.
Mayor Strine- that is why we are discussing this. It is whatever
you want to make it.
Robert L. Valentine W1- If we do that, do we specifically say that you
cannot use it for anything else where as we could say for home
improvements and we could use it for that and maybe have some other
things that might come up that we could use it for.
Glen Stewart- we have fund 405, which is a capital improvement fund.
Robert L. Valentine W1- the argument there was if we did that, why have
a corridor fund?
Glen Stewart – We do have a 405 fund for improvements, but
we could make it, if we chose to, initially it would have to come
from the finance people and subtitle it to 405, Permanent Corridor
improvements which would allocate those dollars based on the
description of what we say is a corridor improvement. A corridor
improvement could be street widening, or it could be streetlights.
Mayor Strine- I think you need to have a special fund for this by
itself where you identify how you want it spent. Out of the
Capital improvement fund, we could not for instance help somebody
improve some building on the corridor right now. But you could if
you pass an Ordinance saying; that is what you want to do with it.
Paul Wertz W4- My question on the Corridor is about the maintenance of
houses and buildings. Do we have a way to enforce it? There
are quite a few buildings in those corridors that need repaired.
Mayor Strine- that is one of the goals of this fund is to make it so
that it is workable to help people with those things.
Glen Stewart- Along those lines, aren’t we looking at that
International Building Code, that includes building maintenance.
I mean that is all inclusive as I see it.
Paul Wertz – You still have to have someone enforce it.
Glen Stewart- the tools are there in that document if we were to adopt
that document, then we have to put the enforcer or delegate that to
someone.
Jim Cooper – we do have an additional individual that we have
hired that could play that role.
Mayor Strine- I see these as two different issues. The idea of this
fund is to give some kind of incentive to improve those so that you
don’t have to go out and enforce them.
Ruth Detrow- Can I ask exactly what the corridors are?
Mayor Strine- that needs to be identified. That is what you folks
are for.
Ruth Detrow- is that where we should start?
Glen Stewart- if we do not know what corridors are, it is going to be
hard to identify what we want to do with them.
Mayor Strine- see I have had this vision of if we had this fund, and
then we could go out and even if Council had that in this Ordinance,
you could go out and buy the property and then when you have a group of
them, you could sell them to somebody who wants to develop something
there. There are all kinds of options.
Glen Stewart: Those corridors could be identified however we
choose to whether they be corridors that a State Route traverses
through it, or it could be a city street that traverses through
it. Or specific State Routes or properties.
Ruth Detrow- I would assume that E. Main would almost come to mind
first. Also downtown.
Robert Valentine W2- Rt. 250 out here is the first thing that comes to
my mind.
Robert Valentine W1- I am thinking Center Street, E. Main, W. Main and
they are pretty good, what seems to need some work on is Cottage
Street. I like the idea of corridors.
Glen Stewart- Corridor improvement fund?
Mayor Strine- so the next thing would be to identify the area. I have a
concept in my mind, the criteria I would follow, but I don’t know
whether you folks do with yours. I am trying to think, where do
we need to go from here? How about if Jim and I go out and we will look
at some areas and we will identify some and then you folks decide if
that is okay or not.
Glen Stewart- are we limiting it today to some individual areas on
Cottage Street and areas on E. Main Street?
Mayor Strine- Yes.
Robert M. Valentine W2- there is a lot of traffic that comes in on Rt.
58 also. Orange Street, that is another one where there is a lot of
traffic. Union. Rt. 96 is pretty nice coming in.
Center Street is pretty. There is one house on W. Main, what
corridor improves that one?
Mayor Strine- any ideas what you want to do with this month. Low
interest loans, outright purchases of land. What do you want to
accomplish?
First impressions are lasting.
Mayor Strine- Well, if anybody comes up with any ideas on that, what
they would like to see in the Ordinance, let me know. I will try
to get some more ideas on that and start with a draft copy.
Glen Stewart- It is easy to take and put facade money to give a first
good impression of what the corridor looks like driving in but it could
still be a very poorly maintained property behind the facade and I
really would have a hard time spending our City money to make a
property look nice on the surface and have it be a mess behind
it. I don’t know how you handle something like that but ,
however I think this is where that International Building code and
maintenance code comes in if we find our way to adopt that or something
similar to it and the police action enforce it. To have nice
corridors, you have to have some teeth and a maintenance process.
We could probably start a fund for corridor improvement, but I think we
need something to make sure once it is improved, it is permanent.
Robert Valentine W1- So you and Jim are going to come up with some
ideas and you are going to let this go before you move ahead with the
Ordinance?
Mayor Strine: Oh Yes. We will have another Work Session on
this. I don’t know, the comment made me wonder.
How would Main Street or Cottage Street fit into Historical; would it
be a district? Some of those houses are pretty old.
Ruth Detrow- there are several places in town that very well could be
historic districts in addition to Center Street. The feeling most
when Center Street worked on this we want to get this. The
Ordinance provides a way for other areas to become a part of. We
have made it very difficult. We have said they have to be on the
National Parks Register first and that is just the opposite of what is
usually done. But you know it can be done and you are aware there
is another group that is forming to help with Grants which is a
wonderful thing.
Glen Stewart- the item on the agenda is, Corridor fund set
up. We can set up a fund. How do we fund the fund?
Mayor Strine- I will get together with Anna Tomasek and we will make a
list of possibilities of how that can be funded.
Robert Valentine W1- You have the statistics though from the sale of
the property to that, we have a commitment on that money, correct?
Anna Tomasek- On the Riley property, yes.
Robert Valentine W1- on the other money through the sale of the other
land, it was going to go to the CIC and then come to us. They are
going to sell it correct?
Mayor Strine- the sale of that property is one possibility.
Glen Stewart - some of that land has been sold for a long time.
Walt brothers and I don’t know where that money went and it might
not be available.
Anna Tomasek – the 405 funds. It was put into that fund.
Glen Stewart- the sale and its worth of land whether it be Garber,
those could be possibilities.
Anna Tomasek – In 2006 we had a sale in the Garber Ward section.
That also went into the 405 funds.
Glen Stewart- So between you and Anna you will bring some services that
we can determine allocation or something? The Mayor and Finance
Director will get together and bring back to us potential sources of
funds that could be a funding source for the corridor improvement fund.
Robert Valentine W1- we had talked about that from the property, but
never locked anything down. That’s fine.
Glen Stewart- Okay, we had 4 items on the agenda, Sanitation Landfill
Costs; Park Operations; Corridor fund set up and Transit update.
We set up Work Sessions for additional information. Landfill
costs with Dan Scott on June 12, 2007 and we set up a Work Session for
the Transit on the 10th of July. We set up one for the Sidewalks
on 6/19/07.
Anna Tomasek – the 2008 Tax budget should be coming to Council on
June 19th as a Public Hearing at 7:10 p.m. It goes to the
auditor in July.
Glen Stewart- The 2008 Tax Budget will be before our Council meeting on
the 19th of June as Public Hearing at 7:10 p.m..
Anna Tomasek- the first Council meeting in July; you will
actually pass legislation before the July 15th deadline.
Mayor Strine- Keep in mind the reason for these deadlines and the tax
budget, the reason for it is if Council determines that money is needed
to put on the ballot. That is the reason for the tax
budget. It is not binding on anything else that we do.
Glen Stewart – Does anyone have any comments?
Brad Bowman, Sanitation Dept- Our trucks are worn out and we need some
new ones. Is there anyway we can work it to get new trucks?
Curt Young- I have an appointment Wednesday, you remember
Norwalk’s trucks, I have an appointment Wednesday with the Street
department and the mechanic and their Supervisor to go look at one of
those trucks because we want to be careful how we spec out. I
have reasons for looking at that particular truck.
Glen Stewart- you are not the least bit out of order, it is just
something we can’t respond to as well brought through the
channels.
Curt Young- that truck will be taken out of regular surface once we
have a replacement.
Cheri Hellterbridle- I would like to comment in regards to the landfill
and recycling. One of the things I have wondered and considered is the
philosophical concept of whether or not you want to recycle. Just the
concept of recycling, not only the cost of it; or how we want to fill
our landfills with things that could be reused. A long-range effect on
the use of what we produce. That whole concept as well as the
immediate cost of land.
Glen Stewart- you are a proponent of recycling obviously.
Cheri Helterbridle- You know what? I do not recycle but I am
getting there. I just started my first bag hanging in the garage
because I really thought this through thinking it is very important.
And tonight against the city we hear anyone talking about that has to
be considered.
Glen Stewart- Let me share with you my personal position. I
loaded up 2 bags of aluminum cans today to take to the recycling center
at $3.44 cents a gallon only to find out that they are closed on
Thursdays. Your point is well taken and I think if you look in
the neighborhood where I am living, there is a fair amount of
recycling. We would probably be graded as C- or less because the
recycling is usually when somebody buys something that comes in a big
box, quite frankly too lazy to break it down, so they set it out for
the recycling guys to pick up and they do. Or often you will see
a little bag with glass or plastic bottles in it.
Brad Bowman- A lot of people put Styrofoam in boxes. The
recycling center does not take Styrofoam.
Robert Valentine W1- We recycle, we put our newspapers in a bag, we
take our cans down to the recycling center. What I want you to
understand, it is just not the cost, I agree.
Glen Stewart- Curt and I made a trip 1 year ago in January and Norwalk
has individual recycling containers to make it easy, probably more
expensive. They have newspaper containers and can
containers. Is there anything else we want to come before Council?
John Chorpening - Is that effecting the Ashland County Solid waste
since people are taking it down there personally.
Mayor Strine- Probably to some degree John, for instance, when you have
spring clean up, you lay a piece of metal out and it is gone like
that. So the city loses out on that.
Robert Valentine W1- Hawkins Market, the problem is there are big
containers back there you can put it in to recycle. There are a
lot of places to do that.
Robert Valentine W2- They have it down at ODOT also.
Paul Wertz- does that count for the city’s credit?
Mayor Strine- the job sites, yes.
Robert Valentine W2- We have a whole line of them. We put
cardboard, plastic, paper and they come and get it every month or
so. The church does the same thing.
Mayor Strine- Outside the city, recycling consists of those types of
drop points.
John Chorpening- I just have the city pick it up for recycling, I never
take it down there or collect any money for it.
Glen Stewart- the city does not get credit for that what we pick up and
take out there. An individual can take aluminum out there and
they will reimburse you for it but I don’t think there is a
credit. We are just a transportation device for that. The
County has to generate x amount of material to satisfy the
environmental protection agency and Dan has a good one.
Jim Cooper- I passed out a letter to all of you and if you will look at
that. It is what the city has recommended for this years CDBG
program. If there is 10 days prior to notice in the paper,
otherwise we will wait until the second meeting in June. That is
kind of tight so I think we will put it on for the second meeting in
June. I would like to get the input.
Motion for the Work Session to be adjourned at 8:00 pm by Glen P.
Stewart, Council at Large, seconded by Robert Valentine W2.
Ayes: Robert Valentine W1, Robert Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Submitted by
Valarie F. Bishoff
Clerk of Council