CIRA de CASTILLOTGI Staff Writer LIHU’E — The Kusaka Administration, during a three hour Public Works Committee meeting yesterday, defended the county’s recycling priorities to clearly frustrated County Council members. Under direct questioning from committee members and Council Chair Ron
CIRA de CASTILLOTGI Staff Writer
LIHU’E — The Kusaka Administration, during a three hour Public Works
Committee meeting yesterday, defended the county’s recycling priorities to
clearly frustrated County Council members.
Under direct questioning from
committee members and Council Chair Ron Kouchi, it became evident the direction
the Administration is going with the program is not the direction the Council
intended when it approved the Administration’s 1999-00 Budget request related
to recycling.
Kouchi quoted the Administration budget message requesting
that the Council increase real property taxes to raise $2 million to offset
anticipated solid waste program losses.
“We raised that tax in light of
the shortfalls, with an expectation that that would give the Administration the
funds to deliver services,” Kouchi said.
Wallace Rezentes Sr., Mayor
Maryanne Kusaka’s administrative assistant, said Kusaka, after reviewing the
Kaua’i Recycles Program, felt the contract for the program should be trimmed by
reducing the education component and eliminating “junk mail” collection rather
than transferring money within public works to cover those services.
“That
is the decision she made until we can get a handle on the municipal solid waste
proposal,” Rezentes said. “So in the short term this is all we are proposing to
do. In the next budget year the attitude may change.”
The meeting took on
the appearance of a congressional hearing as Cesar Portugal, county engineer,
and Troy Tanigawa, solid waste coordinator, huddled with county attorneys,
conferring with them before answering a myriad of questions related to solid
waste contract delays, vacant funded positions, reduced recycling education,
and the elimination of “junk mail” collection as part of the recycling
program.
County attorneys told the Council that any questions related to
the glass recycling and municipal solid waste contracts could be discussed in
closed session only. Council members questioned that opinion and proceed to ask
questions they believed were appropriate.
Randal Valenciano, public works
committee chair, asked Tanigawa if the Administration would meet the 780 tons
of recycling projected in the 1999-00 Budget.
“No,” said Tanigawa.
When questioned where the County was in relation to the federal guidelines for
municipalities to strive to recycle at least 50 percent from the waste stream,
he told the committee that Kaua’i’s percentage is in the “high teens,” most of
which is green waste.
He said 200 tons of solid waste go into the Kekaha
landfill daily. The landfill, he said, has a four-year capacity at an annual
cost to the county of $2 million.
Gary Hooser, vice chair of the public
works committee, said there are major concerns about the direction the county
is going in terms of recycling and solid waste disposal. “The concepts and
values of recycling are important ones that we need to perpetuate in our
community,” he said.
Steve Kaui, speaking for Garden Island Disposal, the
current county recycling contractor, told the Council that recycling in
counties and municipalities is a long-term solution.
Councilman Billy
Swain questioned how the Administration could increase the scope of services it
expects a vendor to provide and not sufficiently increase the budgeted amount.
He added it looks as if the County is going backwards with the recycling
program.
Cathy Shibuya, GID president, said that under the previous
contract 115 tons of “junk mail” was recycled annually.
She said an equal
amount had to be landfilled at a considerable cost to them due to contamination
and that in the new bid GID could not realistically absorb the costs.
GID
proposed a simple modification to the recycling bins that would effectively
reduce the amount of contamination in the “junk mail” collection, she said, but
the county did act on the suggestion.
According to Shibuya, the county
pays $376 per ton for recycling under the current contract.
In other
business, the Planning Committee agreed, in concept, to accept 50 acres of land
for park dedication from Kealia Plantation Company.