Maryland State Wire

Allegany County Board of Solid Waste Management met Sept. 5.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

Members Present: Woody Getz, Raquel Ketterman, Dick Soderman, Agnes Yount, Robert Boyce, John Wardzinski, Steven Guinn, Steve Young, Stuart Czapski, and Siera Wigfield

Members Absent: Brian Dicken, Wally High, David DeWitt, Rich Collins, and Daniell Kennedy

Guests Present: Jenna Linhart (Appalachian Lab), Misty Joy (Health Department, Alex Kirchhof (Conservation Corps, City of Cumberland)

Meeting

Introductions were made, Alex Kirchhof the Conservation Corps person for the City of Cumberland. He has a stipend to work for a year, on the urban tree program and SW& Recycling.

Steve requested comments to make any changes to the September Agenda, no requests made.

Old Business

Board Membership

A letter from Brian Dicken was received on May 1, 2018 to nominate Misty Joy as the alternate member for the Health Department. Misty Joy works with sewer projects, she’s the rabies coordinator, issues burn permits, and has worked 21 years at the Health Department. A motion was made by Steve Young and seconded by Woody Getz. A unanimous vote was made to recommend Misty Joy’s appointment to the SWM Board. (Update: Misty’s appointment is on the Commissioners’ September 27, 2018 public business meeting agenda.)

Curbside Recycling Update

Raquel Ketterman is providing education to the public on recycling. Her biggest messages are about the configuration of the trucks – some people complain their recycling is being trashed. Her other message is telling folks to flatten their cardboard. Overall the comingled recycling is very clean. She followed trucks to the landfill to confirm that recycling was not thrown away.

Raquel Ketterman is reviewing feedback from her survey:

 Cumberland residents please let the City know what you think of the current trash and recycling service by completing a short survey. The City is in year 5 of the curbside recycling program. Your feedback it valuable and appreciated! https://goo.gl/forms/cCtFWEsDpLoZY8cm2

The results will inform her how to update the City’s Solid Waste and Recycling RFP. The top survey requests are people asking for a bin for paper. She is also considering the logistics of bins in the RFP. The next Cumberland RFP will be for 3 years with the option to renew for two one-year terms after.

2017 MRA

No report this month.

2018 Priorities

Citizen Pay Tire Event Saturday, October 6, 2018 9am – 2 pm Allegany Co. Fairground

 The Task Force met prior to the Board meeting. They reviewed the authorization form to be sent to folks with more than 20 tires.

 Attached is a draft handout for the event, focusing on oil, antifreeze, and electronics recycling information.

 Attached is a map of the event layout.

 A Volunteer Sign up sheet was passed around, volunteers were asked to arrive at 8 am.

 Volunteers were also requested for calling people that signed up for event notifications.

 A poll will be taken on how many vehicles and tires there will be at the event. Below is a table with counts from previous events.

 The Task Force will discuss surveys, outreach, and source reduction information given at the event.

Comprehensive Collection

 No report this month. Cooking Oil Public Collection

 Siera Wigfield would like to start this project in the fall. Composting Food Waste Letter

 Siera Wigfield noted no progress this month. NERC Grant Update

No report this month

New Business

Event Recycling

Jenna Linhart contacted Siera about providing bins for the Pig Out in the Park event on August at Hoffman Park in Frostburg. They are also working on providing bins for the Appalachian Fest on September 15. The vendors should be contacted so they are providing recyclable containers.

Siera Wigfield reached out to Burgmeier’s if they would accept comingled cans and #1 plastics from events; they will, as long as there are no contaminates.

Cannabis Waste

GrowWest met with Siera in August to discuss diverting the non-potent organic waste from the cannabis growing operation. Siera reached out to the Ag Extension Office and through them the State’s Chemist Office was contacted, they test any soil amendment. The State Chemist recommended not diverting the material at this time due to legal gray area at this time.

Committee Reports

Reduce/Reuse

Bob Boyce reported he is using fly ash in the concrete to grout under the new residents hall. He was curious if that would count toward the county’s recycling rate.

Recycle/Compost

No report this month.

Landfill

No report this month.

Task Force

No report this month.

Education

Raquel Ketterman is working on getting on the Lifelong Learners Spring Program.

Alex Kirchhof’s first project for the City is to reach out to the schools in the City to educate students on how and why they should recycle. He was looking for any suggestions on how to do that. Jenna and Siera provided suggestions and let him know it would be likely he would be speaking to a large group (the whole school or two sessions with half the student body).

Siera Wigfield presented information about the 2018-2019 Plastic Film Recycling Challenge and the Rethink Recycling Sculpture contest for high school students to art and Secondary Science teachers before the school year began.

Meeting Adjourned at 4:16 pm

http://gov.allconet.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09052018-317