RFPs for recycling businesses will go out in August It was April when Recycling Co-ordinator Allison Fraley last appeared before Kaua’i County Council to talk about the state of the Resource Center out by the Lihu’e Airport. Fraley was hired
RFPs for recycling businesses will go out in August
It was April when Recycling Co-ordinator Allison Fraley last appeared before Kaua’i County Council to talk about the state of the Resource Center out by the Lihu’e Airport.
Fraley was hired last September to help develop programs for inside the Resource Center, which had sat empty for years.
The county has funded most of the work with more than $2 in federal grants from the EDA.
In Fraley’s previous appearance, some members of the council had taken off the gloves and battered the new recycling co-ordinator and her plans.
But everyone was more polite and low key last Thursday at the Committee of the Whole council meeting.
There wasn’t even much outcry when Fraley said the county had yet to finalize and send out requests for proposals RFPs for recycling and re-use businesses to fill the Resource Center.
“We are behind schedule, we haven’t put [the (RFPs] out yet. I’ve continued to revise them,” Fraley said.
Noting council concerns, expressed in April, Fraley said the revised RFPs were more flexible on the amount of space a new business could occupy at the Center.
Fraley also noted there were several interested bidders for both re-use and recycling projects.
Fraley summed up the delays as “an effort for a fair and effective solicitation.”
She said her revised RFPs now have to go to the Administration for final approval.
She predicted “Sometime in August” as the date when RFPs would go out to bid.
“The Administration hasn’t had a chance to review what I’ve done. “(But) in my opinion it’s final,” Fraley said.
Council member Randal Valenciano asked Fraley if the blueprint for tenants at the Resource Center was changing.
“First … there were the boutique-type of shops (projected). Are we shifting away from the business-incubation (model)?”
Fraley said she hoped the Center would accomodate all types of business.
Council member Jimmy Tokioka had a financial concern.
He asked Fraley if the county would be responsible for retrofitting spaces for rent at the Resource Center.
“No, that’s the operator’s responsibility,” Fraley said.
Fraley noted that she had moved her office into the Resource Center and has prioritized getting the facility open.
The usual suspects representing the public were less kind than the council members.
[The Center’s projected tenants are] the hobby-shop crowd. The county should cut our losses and give this place back to the federal government,” Glenn Mickens said.
“What this county has been trying to do is fulfill the terms of the [federal grant]. We don’t have a new landfill … we don’t have a solid waste facility under construction… Why are we doing this? Default and get the more important things going that mean something,” Ray Chuan advised.
Council member Gary Hooser tried and failed to ascertain a date when all the federal grant requirements would be fulfilled by the county.
Hooser asked his questions of Assistant to the Mayor, Wally Rezentes Sr.
“At what point can we say we’ve satisfied the needs of the EDA?”
“We’ve been in pretty close contact (with the EDA) throughout the whole process. I don’t see EDA as a problem,” Rezentes said.
“I understand we need to comply. But when is it satisfied?” Hooser asked again.
“I believe EDA will not charge us for the monies,” Rezentes answered.
Hooser subsided.
“I guess I’ll try at another time (to get an answer),” he said.
“We are nowhere near where we want to be. I find it hard to get too critical of a plan that may not be the plan. But I don’t think the Center should be returned. It should be made profitable,” Council Member Randal Valenciano said.
The council voted to receive Fraley’s latest efforts.
No other decisions were made on the matter at this time.
