Environmental Committee
The Environmental Committee met on October 11 at 5:00 PM to elect officers and discuss related issues. Jeff Brown was elected Chairman, Mike Harvel was elected Vice Chairman and Robert Safdie was elected Secretary.
The main item for discussion concerned a single-stream recycling line for the Sanitation Department. Tom Breeden, Cumberland County Solid Waste Department Director, presented findings the he and Commissioner Mike Harvel have made in their research.
The proposal is to build an 80’x120’ addition to the current recycling facility. This addition would house a single-stream recycling line. Recyclable items including metal, plastic, and cardboard, would be collected separately from other household garbage. The recyclable material would then be fed down the single-stream line with county prisoners separating the different types of recyclables. This material could then be sold for reuse. In addition to the positive environmental impact, this project could also save many thousands of dollars in tipping fees. These are the fees we pay to have our garbage dumped into a landfill.
The total cost to start the project would be about $734,000. Grants for $315,000 have been applied for that could bring the project down to $419,000. The county’s portion of the cost, will be paid for out of the Sanitation Department’s fund balance. The possible Return On Investment, ROI, is impressive. Given a relatively low estimate of 20 percent of recyclable material being recovered, the saving in tipping fees alone would be almost $125,000 per year which would result in a payback of just over 3 years. Given a $100 average per ton sales price of recyclables, this could result in annual income approaching $394,000. In that case, the payback would be made in just one year. The Sanitation Department will be working with Crossville city government as well as Tansi, Fairfield Glade, Pleasant Hill, and Crab Orchard. A partnership would benefit both parties as a portion of the sales revenue could be split. A PDF of the presentation that includes financials and diagrams can be found on my website, http://allenfoster.net, on the ‘Documents of Interest’ page.
Work Session/Emergency Services Committee
A paging system for the Fire Department was discussed in a 4:00 PM work session on October 15 just prior to the regular monthly meeting. Due to upcoming changes to FCC regulations, the existing paging system will be unusable after the first of next year. While $125,000 was requested for a single site wide-band replacement system, $100,000 was budgeted and the only bid came in at over $128,000. The Emergency Services Committee took up the issue after the work session, and will be meeting again on Wednesday, October 24 at 4:30. The main controversy seemed to stem around the system being bid with the ability to be expandable in the future. Some believed the system being bid in this manner made it a multi-site system, which is untrue. Some are also upset over the amount of money already spent on communications for the new P25 radio system, even though the issues are generally unrelated.
It seems to me we should first determine if the county should continue to provide emergency responders with the ability to be paged. I believe that, without a doubt, the county should provide this service as it is vital to help protect pubic safety. Next, we should determine if we want the system to be expandable or if we want it set up so that expansion would be considerably more expensive. Carmin Lynch, 9th District Commissioner, spoke to the company that turned in the sole bid. According the company, it would be cheaper to install a system that is not expandable, which I believe to be true. According to Mr. Lynch, the company also stated it could be less expensive to upgrade a non-expandable system to multi-site. Working and dealing with technology every day, I believe the company is incorrect in this statement. There is no way it would be cheaper to build a non-expandable system and then to discard many pieces of that system to transform it into a multi-site system. It doesn’t pass the common sense test. More information should be forthcoming at the meeting.
Monthly Commission Meeting
The monthly CountyCommission meeting was held on Monday, October 15 at 6:00 PM. All Commissioners were present except 1st District Commissioner, Brian Houston.
The meeting was mostly filled with routine business. Larry Allen, Donnie Buttram, Sandra Brewer, Stanley Hall and James Perry were appointed as members to the Ethics Committee with terms expiring September 30, 2013. Steve Stone was approved to serve as a member to the Upper Cumberland Gas Utility District for a term to expire September 30, 2016. Resolutions to reappoint V. J. Dodson as a member to the Tri-County Industrial Development Board of Cumberland, Morgan, and Roane Counties for a term to expire September 30, 2018 and to recommend the County Mayor be appointed as an ex-officio member of the Public Records Commission were also approved. A resolution was also passed that allowed the Sanitation Department to apply for a matching grant for equipment. This grant is a part of the grants discussed in single-stream recycling line discussion earlier. The purchase of 12 delinquent properties by U.S. Assets was also approved. Routine budget amendments were approved for the Fire Department, Chancery Court and Sheriff’s Department.
William F. (Bill) Ward was appointed as the new Veteran’s Service Officer. Mr. Ward was a Company First Sergeant. He is retired from the Army and also served in the Navy. He has given 32 years of military service in total. Mr. Ward holds a B.S. degree in Management and Administration from ExcelsiorCollege and is working on a degree in Engineering from Tennessee Technological University.
A resolution to pay tribute to Morgan W. Strader was approved by requesting the Tennessee Department of Transportation name the Daddy’s CreekBridge on Route 70, west of Crab Orchard the MorganW.StraderMemorialBridge. Mr. Strader was a Class of 2000 graduate of CCHS. He died as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar province in Iraq on November 12, 2005.
Your feedback is important to me. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. Thank you for allowing me to serve the 4th District and Cumberland County.
Sincerely
Allen Foster
Board of Commissioners
4th District Representative
http://allenfoster.net
allenfoster.com 