TodayAuthority signs lease for Cumberland County recycling center
Goal is to have drop-off containers in place at Newville Lions Club location by the first of the year, Imphong says.
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Article RatingThe search for a recycling drop-off center in western Cumberland County has finally paid off for the Cumberland County Recycling & Waste Authority.
Officials decided Monday to sign an agreement with the Newville Lions Club, leasing a portion of the fairgrounds for the recycling facility.
“We’re excited about it,” said Tom Imphong, the authority’s executive director. “The lease had to occur for things to move forward.”
Last year, the authority planned to build a permanent center in North Newton Township, but the idea was scrapped after a handful of township residents fought the project with a lawsuit, citing concerns about traffic, safety and non-conformance with township ordinances.
Negotiations on a permanent drop-off facility at the Lions’ North Newton Township property started in the beginning of 2008.
Talks have not led to construction of a permanent facility, Imphong explained, but there have been discussions with the club about the site’s future operations.
“This is a good first step. It’s been a long time to get to this point,” he said.
A long-term commitment would also depend a lot on funding, which remains a problem for the authority, because it currently has no revenue sources. It had been collecting $2.50 on every ton of trash generated in Cumberland County, money that covered expenses and helped build a reserve until a judicial ruling ended the practice.
Without the funding, the authority is limited to about three years’ worth of reserve dollars to fund operational costs. Imphong estimates it would cost between $700,000 and $800,000 to construct a permanent facility and get operations underway.
Revenue will be generated by the recyclables from the drop-off facility, he said, but only enough to reduce some of the hauling costs.
“Without a change in the law or us finding a new funding source that would be allowed, we have no other funding source,” he said, adding that the commissioners have told the authority they will not fund its operational costs, which total about $600,000 a year.
House Bill 934 concerning funding sources for solid waste authorities is still on the floor. If passed, that legislation would allow authorities and counties to put a fee on waste generated within their borders. That revenue would be restricted to the funding of waste management programs.
Full-time operations
Until the authority has it recycling containers in place at the site, which is expected to occur by the beginning of 2009, it will continue the one-day-a-month drop-off events at the Newville Lions Club site, Imphong said. And the Cumberland County Juvenile Probation Department has said it would like to continue working the drop-off site.
“They have found that is a good program for them. Community service participants get a lot out of it and we certainly appreciate the additional eyes and hands,” Imphong said.
When completed, the site monitoring will increase to one day a week for three weeks out of the month to assist people in the offloading of materials and maintain the area.
Hugh Barr, chairman of the board of trustees for the Newville Lions Community Fairgrounds, said the organization is anxious for the full-time recycling program.
“This is just another way we can serve the community,” he said. “People have gotten used to our place. This is just more effective for them.”
In western Cumberland County, only Shippensburg has curbside recycling pickup. That has left about 30,000 residents on that edge of town having either to put their recyclables into the garbage or to drive them to the county-sponsored drop-off sites in Newville and Hopewell Township.
The authority also plans to provide vendor service and add recycling containers at the Hopewell location, Imphong said.
