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2013 SWAC Report City Council Meeting MinutesMeridian City Council Workshop March 11, 2014 Page 10 of 45 Zaremba: Second. Rountree: All right. Moved and seconded to move forward with the letter to Ada County recommending approval of the rate structure. All those in favor signify by aye. Opposed nay? That's, Steven. We will get that done. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Cory: Thank you, Mr. President, Council. D. Republic Services Annual Report Rountree: And next up Republic Services annual report. And, Rachele, if you want to come up and ask -- answer the grass question -- he's got it covered? Okay. Zaremba: Mr. President? While they are gathering themselves, just a further comment on the letter. It probably should include as an addendum the rate fee that was just explained to us, so that when the -- when the letter goes there isn't any doubt about what version of the rate fee that we are recommending. Rountree: Okay. We can do that. McDannel: Mr. President, Members of the Council, here to review -- Rountree: If you could give your name and address. McDannel: Oh. Apologize. My name is Konrad McDannel with Republic Services. Sorry. Do I need to say my address as well? Rountree: If you have got one there. McDannel: Yes, I -- located at 11101 West Executive Drive in Boise. Rountree: Thanks, Konrad. McDannel: So, I'd like to review the 2013 annual report in the City of Meridian for Republic Serves trash and recycling. So, in 2013 we saw an increase in household accounts of 2.6 percent during that year. With that it brought an increase in trash tons 3.2 of tons. Also increasing was cycle times. It increased by 3.3 percent overall during 2013. About 80 percent of Meridian residents have a recycled cart with their trash carts. Of course we'd like to see that get closer to the one hundred percent mark. As was addressed in the SWAC report that commodity rates for comingled materials was -- was soft, to say the lease. The average price per ton on commingled materials was negative $6.33 for the year. Over the course of 3013 Republic Services processed the recycle items collected curbside at a cost of 27,000 for the year. Recycle at fall took place Meridian City Council Workshop March 11, 2014 Page 11 of 45 again this year. It was the second year that the program was operated in Meridian by -- by Republic Services and an increase of cubic yards of leafs collected during that time -- during the 2013 season was 790 cubic yards, which is an increase of 62 percent from the previous year. SWAC -- the SWAC report touched on grass recycling. I have a couple of comments about that and, then, if you want to ask me questions about that feel free. It was a new program initiated in 2013. We had the hopes of launching it in late spring, early summer, and at that time we started to promote it heavily and market that service and -- and it generated a lot of buzz throughout the community. We had quite a bit of excitement. However, we ran into some red tape with DEQ and -- and that slowed us down a little bit, so we -- by the time we satisfied their requirements the program was officially released in I believe late August, at which time we lost quite a bit of that momentum that we generated in early spring and summer. At this point the -- well, the program runs April through October for grass only recycling and so in August you can imagine the overall deflation of excitement at that point when lawns are dry and they are not really growing and -- and it is a subscription service at 7.95 a month. So, the perception was, well, I will just wait until next year. This year is already pretty close to over this season. So, we lost a lot of momentum in that and we ended up with roughly a hundred subscribers for the season. I believe the count now is 154 and now with all the regulatory requirements out of the way, we can go back into full swing this season and we -- we expect that to be -- to far surpass -- far surpass where it is today this time next year. Any question about grass recycling before I move on? Bird: Mr. President? Rountree: Mr. Bird. Bird: Konrad, was there enough given to the vendor at all so that they could run their tests and stuff and see what -- see how they are going to have to mix for the feed and stuff or -- was we able to get any of it processed or was it just put on hold? McDannel: Well, I'm going to -- Rachele does work closely with our vendor on that and -- Rachele, do you mind speaking to that? Klein: Council President and Councilman Bird, there was not enough volume -- Rountree: Rachele, just -- Klein: Yes. Oh. Rountree: -- state your name and -- Klein: Rachele Klein, Republic Services, 11101 West Executive Drive in Boise. Anyway, there was not enough volume last year to conduct many studies. We did ensile it, so it was, you know, packed in the pit, but there really wasn't enough to go on -- we could have run the test, but they would not have been conclusive enough to move forward and actually mix it as a portion of the ration. So, this year as of -- as a matter of Meridian City Council Workshop March 11, 2014 Page 12 of 45 fact just as today we are up to almost 200 accounts and those are just numbers that I pulled on my phone, so I should have passed them to Konrad as we walked in, but -- so we are already gaining momentum, so we expect to do a test mid summer and, then, again, the fall just to see where we are. So, once we have those volumes back we will -- we will report back. Bird: Rachele, are we just doing this in Meridian or are we doing it in Boise, too? Klein: You know what, that's a good question. It's offered in Boise, Meridian, and Eagle. It's really a Meridian program. What -- at last count out of that 196 homes that we have -- or almost 200 homes over 130 were from Meridian. So, really, it's a Meridian based program, we are just seeing a few in Boise and a few in Eagle and I'm not exactly sure why that is, other than this seems to be where all the interest is, so -- Bird: If it takes off like the vendors plan on it taking off, we are going to need probably more grass than Meridian can accumulate. Klein: Yes. Bird: I hope it's just very successful. Klein: I hope so, too. Thank you. Rountree: Thank you. McDannel: Thanks, Rachele. Any further questions about grass recycling? Rountree: Thank you. McDannel: Okay. Moving onto household hazardous waste collections. We saw a huge spike in household hazardous waste collection and our site is located at the office on Franklin Road and we have hazardous waste trucks there every Monday. We saw an increase of 52 percent in tons accepted. With this increase we actually to had increase staff as well to handle -- to handle those materials and get residents in and out of the job site efficiently. Commercial trash. We saw a slight decrease during 2013. Commercial recycling remains stable. SWAC reported -- in the SWAG report they mentioned more initiatives for commercial recycling, which we are excited about marketing even heavier this year, so we can see that number begin to increase once again. Industrial trash collection, which is usually driven by the construction market, we saw an increase in those services of 20 percent during 2013 and, again, a lot of that can be attributed -- attributed to new construction. For example, the Village at Meridian contributed quite a bit to that. Industrial recycling remains stable. Industrial recycling is more than just commingle materials or cardboard materials, it's saving diverted from the landfill such as appliances would and sheetrock, so -- and each of those has their own independent market that they are based on and -- and, hopefully, we will see that start to climb up here in 2014. Overall transfer station collection, we saw an increase of 22 Meridian City Council Workshop March 11, 2014 Page 13 of 45 percent in 2013. This takes into account not just our trucks, but also independent contractors around the Meridian area, as well as the general public as it's open to those residences as well. Republic Services takes great pride in being an active member in the community. We -- donate to many special events throughout the year. A special event would be something that's short-term. Usually for a weekend. Examples of such events would be Lions Club rodeo, Optimist Christmas tree lot, Rake Up Meridian, things of that nature. We are happy to donate in any way we can as far as services go and also you might see our cardboard boxes out if you're out and about in those events. So, Republic Services makes donations of services to many of the city buildings. Last count were 18 different sites. These would include City Hall, the fire department, various parks and so on. For the year 2013 Republic Services donated 76,600 dollars for the year in trash and recycling services. As mentioned in the SWAC report, we began recycling at the parks -- three in particular. Kleiner, Settlers and Heroes and those -- those parks are -- they have the recycle containers on site and we encourage the community to use them and that -- when the market is profitable we -- we collect the revenue from that commodity and revenue goes into the community recycling fund. So, we -- along with other ideas we have for 2014 as far as sponsorships to increase that fund, we would like to see continued success at the parks for the recycling, because the money does benefit the parks as well, so it makes sense. I believe the SWAC report reported about a thousand dollars worth of revenue generated from that program, which was about five thousand pounds worth of recycled material from the three parks and with that I'd like to turn it over for questions. Rountree: Question for Konrad? Milam: I have none. Bird: Very good report. Rountree: Thank you for the report and thank you Republic Services for the continued great partnership that you have with the City of Meridian. You see Steve Sedlacek in the audience and he continues to be a friend of Meridian working with Republic on our waste disposal issues and appreciate, Steve, your time as well. And, again, SWAC, thank you for your time. Good report and we are -- it sounds like we are in good shape all the way around. McDannel: Thank you, Mr. President, Council. Item 6: Items Moved From Consent Agenda Rountree: There were no items removed from the Consent Agenda. Item 7: Department Reports A. Finance Department: Strategic Plan Update