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2025-04-02 Regular MeetingKODIAK ISLAND BOROUGH��� Solid Waste Advisory Board Regular Meeting April 2, 2025 MAY 15 2025... A Solid Waste Advisory Board Regular Meeting was held on April 2, 2025,Si84%- SOFFICE Fisheries Research Center. KODIAK,ALASKA CALL TO ORDER Vice -Chair Larry Van Daele called the meeting to order at 5:18 pm. ROLL CALL Staff Brian Price conducted a roll call. Board members present were Vice -Chair Larry Van Daele, Doug Hogen, Judy Philips, & Dennis Irwin were present. A quorum was established. Chair Andie Wall was absent. Leanna Harrington joined the meeting at 5:48 pm. Others present were Threshold Recycling President of the Board of Directors Chris Lynch, Alaska Waste Manager David Edwards, Kodiak Island Borough (KIB) Mayor Scott Arndt, KIB Assembly Member Dave Johnson, KIB Projects Assistant Patricia Valerio, and KIB Environmental Specialist Jena Hassinger. APPROVAL OF AGENDA HOGEN MOVED to approve the agenda. IRWIN Seconded. VOICE VOTE ON MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES IRWIN MOVED to approve the previous minutes. HOGEN seconded. VOICE VOTE ON MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF FINANCIAL REPORT Staff Brian Price went over the Financial Report. Projected expenses and present expenses were mentioned. Upcoming advertisements for the Household Hazardous Waste Event were the next anticipated expense. Brian Price noted the situation with Alaska Food Policy Consortium procurement that was previously approved by the board. Due to delivery time concerns, Engineering & Facilities made the call to opt -out of the order since it was unlikely for products to be received before the date of the event. The board was advised to consider expenses for the May meeting to allow for time in June to process and receive orders. The enterprise funding from the landfill was reiterated. VISITORS' COMMENTS None. Kodiak Island Borough Solid Waste Advisory Board Regular Meeting April 2, 2025 Minutes DISCUSSION ITEMS/ACTION ITEMS Reports (if present) Threshold Services Report Quarterly Recycling Report Chris Lynch gave her report. The rates of different materials were shared. Office Pack & Aluminum were noted as the highest rates at that current time. Advertisements have been pushing for Aluminum cans because of this. Numbers of visits and averages to the Drive -Through Haven to recycle at Threshold were shared. August to September will typically see the highest number of visits. Shipping logistics and Threshold's contract with Matson were discussed. Overall numbers like amount and weight have stayed consistent over the years, with roughly 75,000-100,000lbs of product received in a month. Challenges with finding buyers of the material were mentioned, and difficulties with finding buyers of E-waste were briefly shared. Board discussion ensued. AK Waste Report David Edwards gave his report. AK Waste is working to get out the new rates for the next fiscal year. Updates on the high school bear -resistant dumpster designing were given. More redesign needed to happen to address the previous design tested last year. This new design will eventually end up being tested again & reviewed as before. Engineering & Facilities Report • Inventory Update Staff Brian Price informed the board that he was unable to verify inventory to provide an update to quantities. Updates on SB61 Staff Brian Price provided a comprehensive update on S661's progress and other information relating to criticisms, support, implications, and other considerations for the bill. The board questioned what effects the bill would have on solid waste management in Kodiak and if it was worthwhile to explore. Vice -Chair Larry Van Daele stated his understanding why the bill held significance for the board to track and explore. Staff Brian Price expanded more on regulations that would be mandated and time frame to comply if the bill is written into law. Hazardous Waste Cleanup Event KIB Environmental Specialist Jena Hassinger shared plans for the Cleanup Event. SWAB's participation at a popup booth was not needed if the board members wished to participate instead in cleanup efforts across town. She noted that sometimes just talking with community members can have a big impact towards helping form awareness of solid waste services and procedures on island. Dennis Irwin & Doug Hogen expressed interest in participating in the event. The board discussed replenishing the supply of logo stickers for outreach purposes. IRWIN MOVED to approve the purchase of SWAB stickers to replenish supply up to the amount of $500. HOGEN seconded. ROLL CALL VOTE ON MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY Kodiak Island Borough Solid Waste Advisory Board Regular Meeting April 2, 2025 Minutes US Coast Guard City Of Kodiak Although not attending in the capacity of the City of Kodiak representative, KIB Assembly Member Dave Johnson offered to provide an update on some developments being made relating to the environment. Grant money was still available at the state level and Kodiak had qualified for a free electric charging station to be constructed. Plans to explore waste stream reductions after the charging station's implementation were shared. This station would be available for use by the public however its location was not known at the time of reporting. Outreach Reports KIB Environmental Specialist Jena Hassinger was the only outreach report. She shared plans to start a Facebook post series called titled Trash Talk where members of the community could discuss different solid waste issues on the island. Extension of The Threshold Recycling Contract KIB Projects Assistant Patricia Valerio began with an overview of the Threshold Contract Extension. The contract is due to expire at the end of June this year. The proposal of the extension is to add another year to the current contract. Essentially, SWAB's support is needed to advise the Assembly to extend the contract July 1st, 2025, through June 30th, 2026. There would be another 2% increase to the contract amount. PHILIPS MOVED to support the extension of the 6th-year Threshold Recycling Contract from FY2026 to FY2027. IRWIN seconded. Board discussion ensued. KIB Mayor Scott Arndt expressed concerns with the extension to the board. Vice -Chair Lary Van Daele advised the board to be cautious when considering the different sides of the situation. KIB Staff asked KIB Mayor a series of clarifying questions on his considerations for the extension. Overall, the board concurred there needed to be more information provided before a decision could confidently be made. KIB Projects Assistant Patricia Valerio clarified that the recommendation needed to be made for the Assembly to then review. The board discussed what information they would like to see before reaching a conclusion whether or not to support the extension and entertained amending to the motion to give recommendation for the Assembly to be able to review. IRWIN MOVED to amend the motion to instead give support bringing the extension to the Assembly to review at their next meeting. PHILIPS seconded. VOICE VOTE ON AMENDMENT CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY VOICE VOTE ON AMENDED MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY Exploring Possible recycling incentives for local businesses Kodiak Island Borough Solid Waste Advisory Board Regular Meeting April 2, 2025 Minutes Leanna Harrington began discussion of possible recycling incentives for local businesses. She voiced that the best possible way to create an incentive would be to reduce waste bill amounts somehow. Dennis Irwin suggested utilizing Threshold's $35 pickup service for recycling to divert some of the waste stream from dumpsters. Vice - Chair Larry Van Daele voiced agreement that this could lessen amounts of waste in dumpsters. The solid waste contract was referenced for its requirements of premises to have a dumpster onsite. Dennis Irwin shared suggestions to create decals that would incentivize and aid businesses to practice better recycling. He clarified that the program would not be a public campaign and instead be focused on businesses. Vice - Chair Larry Van Daele suggested if businesses could still be given decals if the self - haul instead of using Threshold. Discussion continued. Ways To Reduce Waste Bills For Business Owners The discussion transitioned directly into ways to reduce waste bills for business owners. The board continued to suggest different ways to first incentivize a business to adopt practices that converge to reduce cost of waste bills. Staff Brian Price suggested caution when implementing a program that would place decals on businesses without the guarantee of the desired outcome and to perhaps instead consider marking businesses after they have successfully reduced their bill from adopting positive recycling practices. KIB Projects Assistant Patricia Valerio agreed. She recalled in the past the board had provided certificates to business in similar fashion and saw the program fall off from the lack of impetus to continue it. Discussion And Possible Recommendation To Assembly For Changes to the KIB Fee Schedule and Solid Waste Contract Jena Hassinger began the discussion and a power point presentation by sharing a recent study done in Juneau to look at their landfill filling in 7 years. Using a similar method of analysis, Jena had averaged operating costs at the Landfill over the course of the past several years. The presentation continued and more information was shared with the board for their consideration. Discussion continued. KIB Assembly Member Dave Johnson illustrated a hypothetical situation in which the tipping rate and other fees are recommended by the board to be increased and that he would want the security of the board being aware of the Obligated Debt. Expense, a clear understanding or breakdown on what capital was as well, and have the information broken -apart from the operating costs. The board did not feel recommendation to the assembly was needed at this time and wanted to continue to familiarize with more information pertaining the operating costs in a multi -facetted approach. KIB Mayor Scott Arndt offered other considerations as discussion closed. Discussion and Possible Recommendation To Assembly On Whether Or Not To Construct And Operate A Transfer Station The board speculated whether a transfer site was the best solution for the waste management in Kodiak. From the presentation of the previous work session, the board agreed that it would be costly and could not guarantee an improvement towards waste Kodiak Island Borough Solid Waste Advisory Board Regular Meeting April 2, 2025 Minutes diversion. Also, the board believed this sort of facility would have a high chance of creating other undesired outcomes involved with misuse from the public. Discussion To Consider Funding A Field Trip To The Landfill & Threshold Facilities for a 2nd Grade Class Judy Philips began the discussion. She had visited with 2nd grade classes across different schools, and Main Elementary was the most interested. The rate for bussing would be $40 per hour. The board entertained a motion to approve $150 to cover the cost. PHILIPS MOVED to approve the expense of $150 to cover costs for a 2nd grade class to attend a field trip to the landfill. IRWIN seconded. ROLL CALL VOTE ON MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY Decals To Identify Local Businesses That Exemplify Positive Recycling Practices Discussion of Decals to Identify Local Businesses That Exemplify Positive Recycling Practices was included under Exploring Possible Recycling Incentives for Local Businesses. Strategic Planning & Organization The board deferred discussion of Strategic Planning & Organization to the next meeting. BOARD MEMBERS' COMMENTS Judy Philips - Really feel like I'm over my head with all the contract recommendations and fee schedule. Jena thank you for your presentation and all the information for the threshold contract and landfill. I appreciate how much you've worked on this, and it's a big learning curve for me. Dennis Irwin - Thank you guys so much. I really like us getting fired -up and talking about this so much. It seems like we're getting things done and moving towards goals. Doug Hogen - Thank you Brian & Jena for your presentations. I really want to be there [at the hazardous waste cleanup event] the 3rd but can't make it. Anyone who wants to attend, please be there. Leanna Harrington - I want to continue exploring ways to reduce waste bills for businesses. I'd like to see more information on the fees. There are some years where things are less than before and some where the expense is double or triple. There are other things to factor in. NEXT MEETING SCHEDULE The next meeting was scheduled for May 14th. Kodiak Island Borough Solid Waste Advisory Board Regular Meeting April 2, 2025 Minutes ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:17pm. < �OPIA#�I�AidE3-B UGH ATTEST: Andie Wall, Solid Waste Advisory Board Chair Vawack \`a leiy�o FW �11 ian Price, Engineering & Facilities Approved on: (p(f Q026 Secretary Kodiak Island Borough Solid Waste Advisory Board Regular Meeting April 2, 2025 Minutes