2020-09-23 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Adams said she just learned the department is waiting for the mayor to make an announcement that the compost facility has been halted. She will try to dig around and find out what the barrier is to the Shipman facility. Since a new mayor and administration will be in place soon, this is a high priority for the commission. Commissioner Gaffney said there are several small composting facilities and a larger one on the west side that mixes soil, cinder, and compost and sells it by the truckload. There is clearly opportunity. Vice Chair Olson said composting facilities have been discussed for over 25 years here, but the basic problem is the island does not have enough tonnage and it is variable. The volumes should be looked at, and then getting those people who are interested to work on it. There has been a lot of research into this over the past 25 years. Someone who has worked on it is Russell Ruderman, and he might try to reach out to him and get names of others who could be interested. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Status of the commission’s letter to the County Council in support of the draft 2019 Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan Update. Chair Pequeño said the letter has been drafted, and he was told the plan should be on a council agenda in about two weeks. His plans to send the letter out so it will be a part of the Council’s meeting documents to consider as testimony. b. Status of the commission’s letter to the County Council and administration requesting they immediately begin the process of implementing ESPCS, and requesting the director to provide details for the RFPs for those ESPCs. Chair Pequeño said the letter was drafted by Commissioners Gaffney and Adams, and he had a discussion with Councilmember Richards about it. He wanted the commissioners’ thoughts on when the letter should be sent out, since there would be a new administration soon. Commissioner Gaffney felt that since a lot of people in the current administration and council had been working towards the goal of using ESPCs, sending the letter now would support them and let the administration and council know it is important and the commission wants them to look at it. Then in the early part of next year, when the new administration and councilmembers are in place, they could send another letter saying essentially the same thing, but perhaps fleshing out more details on what they think are critical to a broad, go big type of ESPC. 4