Solid waste district to end recycle center funding in June
The three-county solid waste district that includes Garland County and the city of Hot Springs will not support its regional recycling center on Runyon Street after June 30, the district’s board voted Wednesday.
The Southwest Central Regional Solid Waste Management Board Recycling Advisory Committee recommended at its Oct. 24 meeting to cease support effective Jan. 1, but the board voted Wednesday to fund the center through June.
According to information presented to the board Wednesday, the district, which includes Clark and Hot Spring counties, is expected to receive $261,819 in 2019 from its annual state recycling grant. Twenty percent, or $52,263, will pay the West Central Arkansas Planning and Development District’s administrative fee, leaving $200,455 after $9,000 is deducted for recycling awareness grants for area schools.
The board had used the grant to fund the recycle center but agreed Wednesday to distribute it on a population basis in the future. Garland County will get 63 percent. Garland County Judge Rick Davis, chairman of the solid waste board, said the county’s share will be divided with Hot Springs on a population basis.
The cost of hosting events for district residents to dispose of hazardous household waste and other items will be deducted prior to the distribution, leaving what the district projected was about $130,000 to allocate to the three counties next year.
Clark and Hot Spring counties have not used the regional center in recent years, making them reluctant to fund a facility that primarily benefits Garland County and Hot Springs.
“When the regional solid waste district was formed,
most of the entities were bringing their recyclables, but over the years, because of transportation costs, they’ve kind of quit using the regional center,” Dwayne Pratt, WCAPDD executive director, said.
The solid waste board capped 2019 funding for the recycle center at $120,000. Its annual operations cost about
$200,000. Interim Hot Springs City Manager Bill Burrough asked the board to support the center for six months, giving the city time to develop alternative funding for the second half of
2019 and beyond.
“We don’t really have a plan moving forward,” Burrough told the board. “To make a drastic change such as this and stop funding Jan. 1, I think it’s an impediment to our entire district. Without some kind of transition, we may not be recycling.”
Burrough told the Hot Spring Board of Directors during last month’s budget presentation that the city may have to assess a commercial cardboard recycling fee to keep the center afloat, explaining that getting the solid waste board to agree to six months of funding would give the city time to determine the feasibility of a commercial cardboard rate or other revenue streams.
Burrough told city directors the solid waste fund’s reserve will have to support the center until a new revenue source comes on line. The city’s 2019 budget the board adopted earlier this month appropriated $200,000 for that purpose.
The district’s recycling program exceeded its annual state grant by more than $500,000 from 2013-17, the solid waste board said, noting the discontinuation of funding for the recycle center gives district members more flexibility to implement their own recycling programs.
“I think it does make sense to look at a different way to set our priorities as a district,” Burrough, one of seven directors on the solid waste board, told his colleagues. “In 2020, there’s going to potentially be $250,000 to help all of our entities develop and start a recycling program they may not have now.”
The board has yet to determine how to dispose of the center’s assets, which the city said includes a loader, forklift and fully depreciated baler. The board said it may be possible for the city to lease the equipment or purchase it.