Recycling fee OK’d

Published 10:26 am Wednesday, December 16, 2009

By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor

Washington’s new mayor and City Council made it clear during the first meeting of their two-year terms they plan to closely watch the city’s finances.
As Mayor Archie Jennings and the council, with its new members Ed Moultrie, William Pitt and Bobby Roberson joining veterans Doug Mercer and Gil Davis, made their way through the agenda, several comments during Monday’s meeting centered around fiscal matters.
Among the council’s first actions was a 4-1 vote, with Mercer dissenting, to adopt a commercial recycling fee of “$3 per existing 4 cubic yards of commercial solid waste disposal with a minimum of $3 per commercial account.” That option was chosen over a second recommended option: a commercial recycling fee of $4 per commercial account. There are about 500 commercial solid-waste disposal accounts serviced by the city.
Allen Lewis, the city’s public-works director, told the previous council in November he believes a fee is justified because city crews and equipment are being used to pick up items the state mandates must be recycled. Using those crews and equipment to do what the state mandates adds expense to the solid waste-disposal services the city provides, Lewis noted. Those items include oil filters, wooden pallets and plastic bottles and containers.
Mercer opposed the fee, saying he has a problem with charging every commercial customer a minimum fee because some customers won’t have such items entering the city’s waste stream. If a customer is not using placing such items in the waste stream, they should not pay a fee for a service they are not using, he said.
Roberson, who was elected mayor pro tempore, wants to expand the city’s recycling program.
“For me, I’m for mandatory recycling,” he said, adding that mandatory recycling is “something we need to look at.”
The council unanimously voted to spend no more than $6,000 on laptop computers and associated equipment so its members and the mayor may electronically access information such as council agendas and minutes, other city documents, information on the city’s Web site and other online information while they attend council meetings. Ray Midgett, the city’s information-technology director, had recommended spending about $12,000 on such equipment.
Mercer said the $12,000 figure was “way out of line,” adding that he believes adequate equipment can be obtained for about half that figure.
For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.