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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2023.10.27 Special Meeting MinutesMINUTES McCall City Council Special Meeting McCall City Hall -- Legion Hall VIA TEAMS Virtual October 27, 2023 Call to Order and Roll Call Work Session Public Comment Adjournment CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 1 Mayor Giles called the Special meeting of the McCall City Council to order at 9:00 a.m. Mayor Giles, Council Member Maciaszek, Council Member Nelson, and Council Member Nielsen all answered roll call. Council Member Thrower was absent. City staff members present were Anette Spickard, City Manager; BessieJo Wagner, City Clerk; Erin Greaves, Communications Manager; Michelle Groenevelt, Community and Economic Development Director; Brian Parker, City Planner; Sean Reilly, Network Administrator; Meredith Todd, Assistant City Planner. Also, in attendance were Mark Fulwiler, Lakeshore Disposal District Manager; Aaron Donnelly, Lakeshore Disposal Regional Municipality Manager; Elt Hasbrouck, Valley County Commissioner. WORK SESSION 1 AB 23-210 Solid Waste, Recycling and Compositing Overview with Lake Shore Disposal The Community and Economic Development Director, Michelle Groenevelt, introduced the topic to the City Council. On August 24, the McCall City Council discussed a Request for Proposals (RFP) Solid Waste, Recycling and Composting. This meeting topic included the background on contract development and previous RFP efforts as well as numerous proposals to add recycling as a service and discussions of composting programs. Based on the McCall Area Comprehensive Plan, the City should support curbside recycling and composting. At the August 24 meeting, Lakeshore Disposal provided some information about the topic, and a work session was requested with Lakeshore Disposal to better understand the existing program in McCall, industry standards, and ideas for McCall moving forward prior to the RFP being issued. Mark Fulwiler and Aaron Donnelly with Lakeshore Disposal presented to the City Council. Mr. Donnelly reviewed prior and current recycling options. Prior to 2020, the local recycling option was a community drop box. Currently, there is a recycling center in Lake Fork and Lakeshore MCCALL CITY COUNCIL October 27, 2023 Special Meeting Page 1 of 5 Disposal offers commercial cardboard service. There are also local small composting programs and wood debris collections throughout Valley County. Mr. Donnelly additionally gave a review of the recycling market. Mayor Giles commented on the State of Oregon and other states that have financial incentives for recycling bottles and asked Mr. Donnelly what the State of Oregon did when China stopped taking recycling materials. Mr. Donnelly noted that the Oregon Bottles and Recycling Cooperative manages the incentive program and if the material is clean and source separated there is still a market for the recyclable material. Council Member Nelson asked about the premium per ton and Mr. Fulwiler noted that the premium for the area is over $100 per ton. Mr. Donnelly reviewed extended producer responsibility legislation that some states have put into effect. The legislation requires plastic producers to pay for community education to reduce contamination and to stabilize recycling markets. Mayor Giles asked if the legislation is national and if the State of Idaho is considering such legislation. Mr. Donnelly reviewed that the legislation is on a state -to -state basis and not a national requirement. Mr. Donnelly was unsure whether the State of Idaho was considering enacting such legislation. Council Member Nelson asked Valley County Commissioner Elt Hasbrouck to comment on the potential for legislation and the recycling center. Commissioner Hasbrouck reviewed the financial struggles to keep the recycling center going and challenges the County faced over the past year. Mr. Donnelly noted that the goal of recycling is to reduce impact on the climate. Food waste is a large percentage of the solid waste stream. The Environmental Protection Agency did a study that showed 21% of foods break down in the landfill and in an oxygen depleted atmosphere creating methane. Methane is 25 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide. Mr. Donnelly reviewed how the Lake Fork Recycling Center works. Lakeshore Disposal brings waste from the commercial cardboard route to the recycling center. Additionally, Mr. Donnelly noted that the City can start an independent recycling and compost center. Mayor Giles expressed that a centrally located recycling center is a better option to separate recycling centers in each city and expressed the attractiveness to the curbside recycling option. Mr. Donnelly reviewed curbside recycling options. The cost is reduced by mandatory trash and recycling services but there is an option for a subscription for current customers to pay for curbside recycling if the customer wants it. There is an additional option for cardboard only curbside recycling every other week. Cardboard is always marketable unlike plastics. With curbside recycling comes a need for a centralized transit center for the recycling to be sorted before being trucked out of the area. Alternative options include a centralized depot with public drop-off, Community mini -depot bins, Targeted large generator partnership bins and Community Recycling take -back and drop off events. The issues that could arise include security issues, staffing issues and contamination. The dangers of lithium batteries in landfills were discussed at length. Additional services offered by Lakeshore Disposal are organic and yard debris curbside pickup. Mr. Donnelly noted that the curbside organics pick up could attract more wildlife. Council Member Nelson asked about the environmental impact of trucking out recycling to a sorting facility. Mr. Donnelly noted studies have shown that even with the use of diesel trucks MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 2 of 5 October 27, 2023 Special Meeting there is not a considerable amount of impact added. Additionally noted was a group called the Recycling Partnership which is a nationwide group that provides grant funding for cities that do not have curbside recycling. The group will provide up to 15% of the cost of the carts and have also provided grant funding for depots if the City does not already have a depot established. At this point in time the group has not awarded any grants in the State of Idaho. Mr. Fulwiler and Mr. Donnelly reviewed how the City of Hailey accomplishes curbside recycling. Mayor Giles asked if comingled recycling is being recycled. Mr. Fulwiler noted that what is being collected in Valley County is being recycled because the items are presorted. Cardboard and plastics 1 and 2 are most often recyclable when recyclables are comingled, and other items may be more contaminated in the comingle option. Mr. Fulwiler expressed that there is more value in comingled options because of the volume of recyclables as opposed to the presorted option that takes more time to process. Mayor Giles noted that the number of items being recycled with presort options is significant compared to the number of items not recycled because of plastic types or contamination in comingle options. The number of items successfully being recycled is important to the community. Mr. Donnelly noted that starting a new recycling program has the benefit of community education to limit contamination if the program is comingled. Mr. Fulwiler reviewed the Orange Energy Bag program utilized in Ada County. The Orange Energy Bag allows customers to put all plastics 3 through 7 in an orange bag within the comingled container. This allows the waste company to easily bundle up specific plastics with less contamination. The bundles are then transported to Salt Lake City Utah to heat a cement kiln. Mr. Donnelly further explained how plastics replace the coal burning process with a process that has far less emissions and impact on the environment than coal does. Mayor Giles asked about the different bin colors used in other communities. Mr. Fulwiler reviewed how each bin is designated for either waste, recycling or yard debris and each bin is picked up on a rotating schedule. Additionally reviewed was the glass recycling container at Eagle City Hall. The container is picked up Monday's and Fridays and is always full. A company in east Boise does sandblasting and the crushed glass can be used in the sandblasting process. The tradeoff is that there can be no labels or caps and Lakeshore disposal disposes of any non -glass items in the container free of charge so the sandblasting company can use the glass. Mayor Giles asked about food waste and Council Member Nielsen asked for Mr. Donnelly to review composting. Mr. Donnelly reviewed location needs and Mr. Fulwiler reviewed programs in the Treasure Valley. Council Member Nielsen asked where the closest composting processor is located. Mr. Fulwiler noted that Timber Creek recycling in Meridian is the closest option for transporting waste to be composted. Mr. Fulwiler also explained that there would need to be a location to store yard debris and food waste until there is a full load to take to the Treasure Valley. Council Member Nielsen asked how much space would be needed for a storage location. Mr. Fulwiler said that he can research the amount of space needed and provide that information to the City Council in the future. Commissioner Hasbrouck commented on the current landfill expenses and challenges. Council Member Nielsen noted that if the garbage is dealt with locally instead of being transported the expenses would go down. MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 3 of 5 October 27, 2023 Special Meeting Additional discussion was had on the challenges that come with recycling different materials and Mr. Fulwiler reviewed Food Cycler programs. The Food Cycler is an in-house food composter. Assistant City Planner Meredith Todd commented on composting and the option of larger industrial scale composting systems. One way to shrink the amount of space needed for the program is to use an industrial scale composter. Council Member Nelson commented on the importance of implementation, education and the community working together moving forward. Council Member Nielsen asked staff about future contracts for waste service providers and if there is exclusivity or if someone else can run a composting and recycling site. Director Groenevelt noted that the city can put provisions in the request for proposal that addresses issues with exclusivity such as a local small business providing services that the main hauler may not want or isn't able to provide. Additionally, Council Member Nielsen noted that his personal composting pile has not been bothered by bears in years. Council Member Nelson again commented on the importance of educating the community on the proper way to dispose of waste. Council Member Nielsen strongly expressed that yard debris and food waste are two items that can be delt with locally without having to transport it somewhere else and the community can end up with a usable product from it. Director Groenevelt asked Mr. Fulwiler and Mr. Donnelly for local subscriber statistics. Communications Manager Erin Greaves noted that the City Council seems keen on educating the community and additionally reviewed that the City has previously asked the community for feedback and input on recycling and composting. It is important to be thoughtful and not keep asking the same questions and getting the same results. Director Groenevelt agreed that the city has a pretty clear sense of the public's interest in a waste program that includes recycling. Staff have been asking the public and the public has been commenting to staff and the City Council for many years about the issue. Working with Valley County is an important partnership but at the same time the City of McCall is unique from the rest of Valley County in the sense that 78% of houses are either second homes or short term rentals. The city also has the actual density to do some programs that potentially don't make sense for other rural areas in the County. Mr. Fulwiler reviewed service statistics. Lakeshore Disposal serves 1913 residential customers, and 269 businesses have active accounts in the City of McCall. There are currently 183 that have switched to seasonal where the service is switched off when no one is home. Planner Todd noted that there are just over 5000 housing units in the city, but that number includes apartments and condos that may have dumpster service instead of individual service. Director Groenevelt asked for clarification on if seasonal residents are contributing to the revenue stream year-round or just seasonally. Mr. Fulwiler noted that seasonal service is only paid for when active. The City Council, City Staff and Lakeshore Disposal Staff additionally discussed mandatory versus non mandatory waste service. PUBLIC COMMENT 1 Mayor Giles called for public comment. Michelle Blank, 744 Deer Forest Dr MCCALL CITY COUNCIL October 27, 2023 Special Meeting Page 4 of 5 Ms. Blank commented that having the numbers for how many customers are year-round subscribers may offer good insight into who would being affected by a change to mandatory trash pickup. Bill Hendrickson, 302 Mather Rd Mr. Hendrickson expressed appreciation for the public involvement in the discussion. Additionally, Mr. Hendrickson expressed a need for education on how to handle all the different waste streams and suggested a five-year vision as a community of what to do with each waste stream instead of thinking of them as one bundle. Nancy Basinger, 302 Mather Rd Ms. Basinger commented on food waste and the need for the community to rescue edible food. How is the amount of food waste being impacted by grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses throwing out edible food. Hearing no further comments, Mayor Giles closed the comment period. ADJOURNMENT 1 Without further business, Mayor Giles adjourned the meeting at 10:55 a.m. ATTEST: ```Nttnitis,,1 f `` L ,O`4 jvIcCAL 10. S ( SEAL = O' *1 BessieJo W : er, Cit ler1a Robert S. Giles, Mayor MCCALL CITY COUNCIL October 27, 2023 Special Meeting Page 5 of 5