You can make all kinds of grandiose arguments about the evils of privatization, where corporate barons are solely concerned by their bottom line, and you'd be right. Or you can argue that privatization is the best way to ensure that efficient and low-cost service is delivered, and you'd be right. Lehigh County Exec Don Cunningham and Board of Commissioners' Chair Dean Browning have no time to engage in ideological niceties. It is either privatize the Recycling Center or close it. It was operating at a loss, draining the County budget. So yesterday, Cunningham and Brownng announced that they announced that Middle Smithfield Materials (Palmerton, Pa.) will continue operations at the Lehigh County Organic Recycling Facility in Orefield after the County ceases operations there in June.
The facility receives grass clippings, leaves, tree branches and other organic recyclable waste from many of Lehigh County’s municipalities, landscapers and private haulers.
No campaign flyers. That's toxic waste.
“With the full cooperation of Board of Commissioners Chairman Dean Browning and the Board, we worked behind the scenes with municipalities, listened to their concerns and found a way to keep this facility open under an alternative structure so that the services could continue to be provided at as low a cost as possible,” Cunningham said.
Lehigh County, however, has operated a regional facility since the late 1980s, paid for through administrative fees paid by waste haulers for trash deposited at landfills. A 2006 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling ended that arrangement, so Lehigh County was losing between $250,000 and $500,000 in annual operating costs.
Middle Smithfield Materials has a five year deal with guaranteed rate structures for municipal users. A municipal consortium will assume ownership to retain eligibility for state grants to purchase grinders, screeners, loaders and trucks.
Browning calls this arrangement a non-critical function best handled by the private sector. "We’ll continue to look for other areas where this could be done to benefit Lehigh County taxpayers,” he promised.
I agree! Privatize grass clippings not people!
ReplyDeleteThank You
LOL!
ReplyDeletesaving 250-500k... results!
ReplyDeleteBernie look up Sandy Springs Georgia the City that outsourced everything on youtube. very enlightening
ReplyDeleteBethlehem's recycling center was making a profit at one point. It is a really good facility. My daughter who lives in Centre County brings me old clothes and towels to put into the Bethlehem recycling center's textile collection, as there is nothing like that where she lives. The only bad thing is that so many around me where I live in Bethlehem do not take advantage of the recycling services, and throw everything into the dumpster. Which violates the law while raising our trash collection costs in the condominium. Our household recycles everything we can, and we have just one 13 gallon bag to put into the dumpster every week or ten days as a result. If they have to privatize the facility, at least it will still be available. Better than closing it.
ReplyDeleteBrad Osborne was responsible for South Whitehall earning top dollar for their recyclables. When other municipalities were earning zero for their recyclable commodities, South Whitehall Township was getting paid to help offset the cost of refuse bills to the residents. Lehigh County needs the vision that brad Osborne would bring to the County Commissioners.
ReplyDeleteAnon 1025 Saving 250-500K Results?
ReplyDeleteI do not know the details, but will we be saving 250-500K if local municipalities have to pay more? Last time I check, County and local government is taxpayer funded.
Arguing that the facility will be able to operate and provide the same service at a lower cost is one thing. Passing on the expense or added cost to the local level is not saving taxpayers in LC anything.
Without this facility, there would be more illegal dumping.
Time will tell if this was truly cost savings or just pass the buck governance.
How will municipalities be billed and how does it compare to existing expenses?
We see O'Hare the censor is at work. All the censoring in the world won't help your buddies at this point.
ReplyDeleteSo much for your "dialogue"
I don't understand how Whitehall can be making a profit from our recycling, and the county operated at a loss? People should look into what Whitehall is doing differently. Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteJust to clairfy, not talking about South Whitehall in my post, rather just Whitehall Township. However the same goes for South Whitehall. What are the Whitehall's doing differently that the County could not capitalize on?
ReplyDeleteThe County looks at this as a mere expense where as municipalities considers the overall costs and the savings realized by not sending this material to the landfill. Breaking even or taking a small loss is a lot better than paying the full burden cost of a landfill disposal or illegal dumping cleanup.
ReplyDeleteWe hear all this talk about Regionalization and then we have something that is Regionalized and they want to dispose of it. All talk, talk, talk.
Its Rubish I tell you.