Council reviews recycling options

Curbside recycling could return to Portland. 

But residents would have to pay for trash pickup too. 

At its meeting Monday, Portland City Council heard several options for combining trash and recycling pickup into one service, with residents paying at least a portion of the cost. 

Council members also heard a proposal from a Redkey resident who wants to start his own recycling company. 

Since January, Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman and other city officials have met with recycling vendors in the area to get estimates on bringing back curbside recycling pickup. The one they’ve found most promising is East Central Recycling, which is located in Muncie and processes both trash and recycling. 

Under a contract with East Central Recycling, city employees would still use the city’s trucks to run pickup routes. They would collect both trash and recycling at the same time — separated into different colored bags — before delivering the bags to Muncie to be sorted. 

Portland Board of Works voted on March 7 to acquire two new trash trucks for the city. It will purchase one outright for $167,887 and lease the other, likely on a five-year contract. 

Baker Tilly (which merged this year with Umbaugh & Associates, the city’s financial consultant) has spent the last few weeks creating a trash and recycling rate study. It estimated the annual cost to combine trash and recycling pickup in a five-year contract with East Central Recycling would be approximately $311,100. 

“The main three cost drivers that you have … are your employee salary wages that would go towards trash and recycling, landfill usage fees at Muncie and then your vehicle costs, which are comprised of fuel, maintenance or repairs on those vehicles and then insurance as well,” said Ross Hagen of Baker Tilly.

Also included in the rate estimates were the lease payments for the new trash truck and the possibility of hiring a part-time employee to drive the trucks to and from Muncie each day. 

If the city wanted to recoup 100 percent of the cost of trash and recycling pickup, it had four rate options for city residents: 

•$13.43 per household per month, which would pay for the service and the annual fee of $59,200 for a three-year lease on a trash truck 

•$12.64 per household per month, which would pay for the service and the annual fee of $37,400 for a five-year lease on a trash truck

•$13.98 per household per month to pay for the service, the annual fee of $59,200 for a three-year lease on a trash truck and a salary of $15,100 for a part-time employee 

•$13.19 per household per month to pay for the service, the annual fee of $37,400 for a five-year lease on a trash truck and a salary of $15,100 for a part-time employee 

Currently, trash pickup is paid for out of the motor vehicle highway fund. Hagen told council it could continue contributing that money – $175,000 – toward providing trash and recycling pickup in the future, which would bring the cost for residents down to:  

•$7.08 per household per month to pay for a portion of the service and the annual fee of $59,200 for a three-year lease on a trash truck 

•$6.29 per household per month to pay for a portion of the service and the annual fee of $37,400 for a five-year lease on a trash truck 

•$7.63 per household per month to pay for a portion of the service, the annual fee of $59,200 for a three-year lease on a trash truck and a salary of $15,100 for a part-time employee

•$6.84 per household per month to pay for a portion of the service, the annual fee of $37,400 for a five-year lease on trash truck and a salary of $15,100 for a part-time employee 

Portland residents currently do not pay a separate fee for trash pickup. Before recycling pickup was halted last fall, residents paid $4.25 per month for the service. 

It wouldn’t decrease property taxes to stop using money from the motor vehicle highway fund, Hagen said, but could free up that money for other uses. It could go to different funds, or could be used as the local match for Community Crossings Grants in the future. 

“The other point with that is it really is a more equitable approach to paying for trash and recycling,” Hagen said. “Property taxes are based on home values ...  so really everybody is getting the same service, but different property values are paying a different amount for that service that’s backed by those property tax levies.” 

After Baker Tilly’s presentation, Redkey resident Tony Fisher proposed a different solution to the recycling problem: a local company that would process the materials. 

Fisher is the manager of a plant in Bluffton that regularly purchases recycled materials from materials recovery facilities (MRF) such as East Central Recycling. 

“I see first-hand every day what comes from a material recovery facility such as the MRF you noted from Muncie. They do not do a very good job of resourcing our recyclables, separating them,”Fisher said. “It devalues the value of the recyclable that we try to collect.” 

For the last couple of months, Fisher has been brainstorming the idea of starting his own local recycling company to process materials from Jay County households. He asked council for support as he moves forward.  

“I just think there needs to be a bigger focus on recycling and I think if I put this company together I can do that for the City of Portland, for the county,” Fisher said. 

Council did not make a decision on recycling Monday, tabling the matter to consider its options further. 

In other business, council members Bill Gibson, Judy Aker, Michele Brewster, Kent McClung and Don Gillespie, absent Judy Hedges and Janet Powers: 

•Were informed that the public hearing, second reading and vote on Portland’s downtown revitalization plan planned for Monday has been pushed back. Geesaman said the draft has been updated and council needed more time to read over it before voting. Residents can also look at a copy of the plan at city hall. 

•Heard from Geesaman that the city has sent a check for $52,649.83 to Jay County Solid Waste Management District. The money is unused recycling grant funds given by the waste management district to Portland over the years. Council voted at its last meeting to return it after a formal request from the district. 

•Received a clarification from Geesaman about Brick Alley, which runs behind Sharlette’s Fudgery and HoosierBoy Smokehouse and Brew and is adjacent to Community Resource Center. While there has been some discussion about revamping the alley and closing it to traffic, nothing has been finalized. The only action that has been approved is for the utility companies to install new lines beneath the alley for HoosierBoy. 

•Learned that the animal control task force has met several times and is preparing an ordinance to better control animals in the county. Geesaman said the task force should have something to present soon.