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ELKINS – The Randolph County Commission has agreed to partner with the City of Elkins on a recycling project.
Elkins City Councilman Chris Lowther, who is a member of the city’s finance committee, addressed Commissioners David Kesling and Chris See during the Commission meeting Thursday.
Lowther said the Randolph County Recycling Center, on 11th Street in Elkins, will close for good in February and that the city is hoping to partner with the county to find a solution.
“Right now I’m not looking for any money out of the county commission,” Lowther said. “I’m just looking for an answer on whether the County Commission will partner with City of Elkins and the Solid Waste Authority to come up with something to be done for the public… I just want to know if the commission will commit to a partnership with the city and the Solid Waste Authority on creating a recycling program for the county’s residents.”
Kesling told Lowther the commission was willing to partner with the two sides and said he had already started searching for ways to help fund the project.
“We had a West Virginia DEP grant already approved where we were going to purchase the old recycling center a forklift,” Kesling said. “I have Peggy Ross, who is our grant writer, reaching out to them to see if those funds can be used to help foster this program, which she feels 99.9% sure we will be able to use for this.”
Kesling said once the approval comes back from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection on the grant change, the commission will use some of that money to help fund the recycling project. He added that a portion of that money, which is $50,000, would also go toward other recycling projects in the county throughout the year.
Lowther told Kesling he will see what kind of options the city has to help finance the project during an upcoming meeting in November.
“The quotes came back too late for me to take to the last finance committee meeting, but I will get them to the one in November to see what we can provide as well,” said Lowther.
He noted recycling has always been available and popular in the Elkins area and because of that, he recently took it upon himself to organize a meeting in hopes of finding a solution.
“Mike Kesecker, the new operations manager with the city, and myself met with Solid Waste Authority members and Mr. (Jerry) Marco to discuss what options were available to the city and the county,” said Lowther. “In that meeting we discussed locations of drop boxes, types of materials that can be recycled, and who would be eligible to apply for the Recycling Assistance Grant.”
Lowther said a request came from that meeting to reach out to Sunrise Sanitation to get a quote for their services. He added that a location had to be designated in order to get a quote, so he and Kesecker recommended the location on Baxter Street, where the City Garage is located.
“With minimal labor and the rearrangement of some fencing, that location would provide adequate space to hold additional recycling containers,” Lowther said.
After sending the quote for service to the city attorney, it was learned that the quote was for a five-year contract, which the city and county cannot approve, Lowther said. Sunrise was then asked for a quote on a year-by-year basis, which Lowther said caused the cost to go up significantly.
“The rental went up from $305 per month to $915 a month per container,” said Lowther. “So that puts us over $25,000 and we will have to put it out to bid, which Mr. Kesecker said might be the best way to go to get more sanitation companies involved.”
Once everything is in place for the new facility, the new location will provide containers for cardboard, office paper and steel and aluminum cans, Lowther said.
Elkins Metal Recycling, on 15th Street in Elkins, is still operating as usual and is not closing, officials said.