Chester Township Trustees voted 2-1 July 9 to spend $27,500 on a larger, easier to use and maintain recycling center at the former Chester School…
Chester Township Trustees voted 2-1 July 9 to spend $27,500 on a larger, easier to use and maintain recycling center at the former Chester School site and allow the township’s volunteer recycling committee to take the lead in establishing it as Chesterland Recycling Park.
“What we have now is a capacity issue,” Trustee Ken Radtke said.
He along with Trustee Bud Kinney voted for the new center. Trustee Mike Petruziello voted against it citing concerns about the township’s budget, although he said he was in favor of moving it.
Fiscal Officer Craig Richter responded it was already in the 2015 budget.
“We budgeted $25,000 for it,” he said. “There’s money in the budget.”
Included in the cost estimate presented by recycling committee member Frank DiVito were lighting, surveillance cameras, paving, signs posting rules and landscaping improvements to screen the site from the view of Chillicothe Road and nearby houses.
Using Russell’s recycling center as a model for improvements, the center will offer drive through convenience, additional bins for paper that have better tops to keep paper dry and in the bins, slotted cardboard bins that force users to compress items for more storage capacity and a separate larger bin for metal items, along with containers for glass and plastic.
“We don’t have enough bins, the location is visible from the park, there’s a lack of security, rules and enforcement, and the traffic flow conflicts with
township safety and service departments,” DiVito, explained about the current center located in Parkside Park.
Kinney attributed some of the problems with the current center to poorly maintained paper bins with broken tops that allow paper to flow out of them and get wet, reducing the value of the paper to potential buyers.
“The company we currently have for paper recycling does not maintain their bins,” Kinney said. “There are U.S. companies that will buy the paper and cardboard if it is in good condition.”
Radtke said he thought that the township currently receives about $3,000 a year for recycled paper, which also includes backing out some expenses for road department employees to clean up the existing site when it was needed.
DiVito further said that the current double row placement of the recycling bins is inconvenient for users and that the bins cannot keep up with demand on long holiday weekends, compounding the overflow problems.
“People try to neatly place their bags of recyclables in front of the filled bins,” he said. “The problem is after a long holiday weekend the bins get filled and are visible from the park. There’s not a large difference between the communities of Russell and Chester. We can make this succeed.”
A Westchester Trail resident said he was in favor of moving the center.
“We should take the lead on this, $27,000 is a drop in the bucket,” he said.
Petruziello voiced concern about misuse of the center stating that some people dump their trash in the recycle bins.
Kinney said that the majority of users do not and that security cameras and lighting will help monitor the new site so that police can track down abusers through vehicle license plates.
“It’s only a few people and it’s not that much,” Kinney said.
Kinney further explained that the amount of time spent in cleanup by the road department is about 1 hour per week.
“The problem we’re having now is that it’s a success and our current design cannot accommodate the high use,” Kinney said.
According to the plans, the new center will be constructed with a fence and a gate or chain that can be used to close it off when it is full. Existing dirt on the site will be moved and molded to create a mound that will help to contain stray items.
The trustees extended the terms of the recycling committee members to Dec. 30. Committee members will work with the trustees to create the new site and committee members will manage its operation.
