Zeno Swijtink
09-10-2009, 12:46 PM
A "20-year guaranteed waste stream" is not the road to zero waste and GHG reductions. - Zeno
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https://www.sonomawest.com/articles/2009/09/10/the_healdsburg_tribune/news/doc4aa81aa6056f0637642412.txt
Hearing next Tuesday on county dump sale
City of Healdsburg still gathering information on potential divestiture
By Frank Robertson
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 2:41 PM PDT
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will push forward with a public hearing next week on a controversial plan to sell the entire county landfill operation to a private company.
The Sept. 15 hearing is being held to move the dump divestiture closer to completion even though none of Sonoma County’s cities have yet to commit their trash streams to the interested private buyer, Republic Services, Inc., which needs long-term city trash commitments to make the deal worthwhile.
Sonoma County Public Works Director Phil Demery has called the city commitments crucial to the completion of the sale, which provides Republic Services with a 20-year guaranteed waste stream from the cities of Healdsburg, Windsor, Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, Cloverdale, Cotati, Sonoma and Rohnert Park plus the County of Sonoma.
“This deal is predicated on all the cities committing their waste,” said Demery at a presentation to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors last month.
Republic Services is now in the process of setting up its outreach to the cities, with the city of Healdsburg’s staff scheduled to meet this week in a closed session with Republic representatives, said Healdsburg City Manager Marjie Pettus.
She has scheduled an appointment with city staff and Republic this Wednesday, Pettus said on Tuesday.
“It’s a meet and greet, an opportunity for us to ask questions,” said Pettus.
“We anticipate the City Council having some discussion about it in closed session on September 21,” said Pettus.
Eventually the commitment question will be decided by the Council after a public meeting, said Pettus.
So far there is no commitment from Healdsburg. “It will be a while before there is a game plan,” said Pettus.
The Sebastopol City Council is scheduled to hear a Republic Services presentation at the Council’s regular meeting on Nov. 3, said Sebastopol City Clerk Mary Gourley. That meeting will start at 5 p.m.
The Town of Windsor has not announced its presentation schedule.
The hearing next week will take comment on the sale of the central landfill operation plus transfer stations in Annapolis and Sonoma. The transfer stations in Healdsburg and Guerneville would be leased to Republic Services for 75 years.
The landfill divestiture is also predicated on Republic Services getting state permission to reopen the county’s 400-acre central landfill on Mecham Road near Petaluma to accommodate commercial trash haulers, a process estimated to cost $70 million.
The county now pays about $15 million a year to have its waste hauled to out-of-county landfills in the Bay Area, a practice that runs counter to county goals of fighting global warming and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The divestiture plan has drawn flack from critics who say the process has been conducted too privately and that disposing of trash in a landfill is an obsolete method of waste disposal when recycling should by the goal.
Next week’s hearing is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m.
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NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., section 107, some material is provided without permission from the copyright owner, only for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of federal copyright laws. These materials may not be distributed further, except for "fair use," without permission of the copyright owner. For more information go to: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
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https://www.sonomawest.com/articles/2009/09/10/the_healdsburg_tribune/news/doc4aa81aa6056f0637642412.txt
Hearing next Tuesday on county dump sale
City of Healdsburg still gathering information on potential divestiture
By Frank Robertson
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 2:41 PM PDT
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will push forward with a public hearing next week on a controversial plan to sell the entire county landfill operation to a private company.
The Sept. 15 hearing is being held to move the dump divestiture closer to completion even though none of Sonoma County’s cities have yet to commit their trash streams to the interested private buyer, Republic Services, Inc., which needs long-term city trash commitments to make the deal worthwhile.
Sonoma County Public Works Director Phil Demery has called the city commitments crucial to the completion of the sale, which provides Republic Services with a 20-year guaranteed waste stream from the cities of Healdsburg, Windsor, Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, Cloverdale, Cotati, Sonoma and Rohnert Park plus the County of Sonoma.
“This deal is predicated on all the cities committing their waste,” said Demery at a presentation to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors last month.
Republic Services is now in the process of setting up its outreach to the cities, with the city of Healdsburg’s staff scheduled to meet this week in a closed session with Republic representatives, said Healdsburg City Manager Marjie Pettus.
She has scheduled an appointment with city staff and Republic this Wednesday, Pettus said on Tuesday.
“It’s a meet and greet, an opportunity for us to ask questions,” said Pettus.
“We anticipate the City Council having some discussion about it in closed session on September 21,” said Pettus.
Eventually the commitment question will be decided by the Council after a public meeting, said Pettus.
So far there is no commitment from Healdsburg. “It will be a while before there is a game plan,” said Pettus.
The Sebastopol City Council is scheduled to hear a Republic Services presentation at the Council’s regular meeting on Nov. 3, said Sebastopol City Clerk Mary Gourley. That meeting will start at 5 p.m.
The Town of Windsor has not announced its presentation schedule.
The hearing next week will take comment on the sale of the central landfill operation plus transfer stations in Annapolis and Sonoma. The transfer stations in Healdsburg and Guerneville would be leased to Republic Services for 75 years.
The landfill divestiture is also predicated on Republic Services getting state permission to reopen the county’s 400-acre central landfill on Mecham Road near Petaluma to accommodate commercial trash haulers, a process estimated to cost $70 million.
The county now pays about $15 million a year to have its waste hauled to out-of-county landfills in the Bay Area, a practice that runs counter to county goals of fighting global warming and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The divestiture plan has drawn flack from critics who say the process has been conducted too privately and that disposing of trash in a landfill is an obsolete method of waste disposal when recycling should by the goal.
Next week’s hearing is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m.
--
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., section 107, some material is provided without permission from the copyright owner, only for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of federal copyright laws. These materials may not be distributed further, except for "fair use," without permission of the copyright owner. For more information go to: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml