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
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March 11, 2014
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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
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March 11, 2014
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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
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March 11, 2014
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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