Raise rates, but give us curbside recycling

The public’s feelings came through loud and clear Monday night at the Lyon County Board’s public hearing on recycling.
“Raise the rates, but give us curbside service,” was the overwhelming reaction to the board’s previous action not to accept what were very high recycling bids but to go to a system of “roll-off” recycling.
In essence, the public preferred to pay more on their special assessments and have recycling pick-up at their homes than to cart their recycling to drop-off areas.
“I know it will cost more — but you could raise $700,000 a year (by increasing) the cost to home and commercial owners. We need to go ahead with it and do what we have to do,” said former Lyon County Commissioner Rodney Stensrud of Minneota.
After hearing the public reaction, County Commissioner Charlie Sanow said, “I think people think we have something against recycling. We don’t.” He also said, “We had to put something in place for recycling.”
The commissioners had turned away bids that were nearly at or exceeding double the previous cost of hauling recycling.
The increased cost was caused by outside influences that have negatively affected the recycling hauler’s financial structure.
“We had to provide an option. We never intended it to replace curbside, just to get us by until we had a better plan. We need someone to do it responsibly and affordably,” said Commissioner Sanow.
Commissioners seemed to feel the public’s answers was a mandate to get the curbside recycling program rolling once again.
The county board is meeting Tuesday morning (today) in regular session and will reveal new bids and hopefully unveil a recycling plan that includes curbside service. “We never did intend to get rid of curbside,” said Commissioner Rick Anderson. “We’re going to make this work, one way or the other,” he told a crowd of approximately 100 at the hearing.
“This has been very, very worthwhile. We haven’t decided yet what tomorrow will bring,” Commissioner Paul Graupmann said about the commissioner’s upcoming decision.
The public provided a variety of reasons why the board should return to curbside recycling — and in a few instances, reprimanded the county board for not having the public hearing sooner.
“We need curbside pickup — if we don’t, we go backwards,” said Gayle Whiting of Tracy.
She painted a verbal picture of elderly residents slipping and sliding on ice trying to take their recycling to roll-up sites. “In Tracy we’ve worked really hard,” to make recycling work,” said Whiting.
“If we have to pay a little more, I’ll give up my cup of coffee (to pay for it),” she said.
Stewart Day of Minneota asked, “Why is there such a resistance to raising the fee?
The county charges on the average about $30 per residential parcel for recycling for $20 for rural residential.
Environmental Director Roger Schroeder said in Lincoln County the taxpayer cost is about $55 per parcel and in Redwood County it’s about $68 per parcel.
Lyon County raises about $280,340 toward recycling costs. The lowest they would have been able to contract for with the recent bids was about $425,000. Based on the high costs, the board rejected those bids.
Diana Slyter of the Florence City Council told the board, “Florence takes pride in offering bigger city services at low taxpayer costs.” She added, “Florence citizens have embraced curbside recycling with that appears to be 100 percent participation.”
Her message to the board was that roll-off container sites don’t work and bring their own sanitation issues. “For Lyon County, the end of curbside recycling will not bring cost savings, but will increase our costs.
She re-iterated one of the public’s greatest fear. “Without curbside, recycling will end up  in the garbage,” she said, adding, “And that will end up in the landfill.”
“No matter what, we’re going to pay for this. Raise the fee,” said another Lyon County resident.
A Ghent resident painted verbal picture of rodents, pests and insects at roll-off recycling sites and he added, “Where do we put this in a small town? Do you want it next to your home?”
Minneota resident Pete Doyscher, who is an environmental technician in Lincoln County, re-iterated the same feelings. “Rural sites can be disaster areas because people don’t do the right things,” he said.
Marshall resident Russell Labatt called the roll-off system, “An outdated way of recycling. So why are we even considering it?” he asked.
Ghent resident Darwin Dyce told the county board, “I believe curbside recycling is one critical component of a system to keep waste out of the landfills.” He called roll-offs, “A weak commitment to curbside recycling. When curbside recycling is not available, people recycle less”
There was a suggestion the county recycle “every-other-week” in an effort to save costs. Commissioner Anderson said, “We looked at twice a month” as an option. He indicated that would be looked at, but most likely was not the best alternative.
He suggested there needs to be a concerted effort to marketing a packaging plan. He suggested consumers need to purchase projects in containers that don’t have such a huge burden on the recycling efforts. “We need to do a better job of getting people to buy better,” he said.
Commissioner Steve Ritter, who’s family has always been in recycling, said he obviously has a “Conflict of interest.” But that, “I have always been and remain in favor of curbside.”
County Commission Chairman Gary Crowley said, “This has been very productive. We know what you want.”