INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Board of County Commissioners Tuesday discussed revamping the inter-local agreements it has with municipalities to prevent what just happened in Indian River Shores from potentially breaking the County into a piecemeal solid waste system where every city or town goes its own way.
The goal of getting the public to fully participate in unified, single-stream recycling to meet the state-mandated goal of recycling 75 percent of the County’s solid waste by the year 2020 was part of the reason for putting the franchise hauling services out for bid this year, Utilities Director Vincent Burke told the Board.
Planned with the roll-out of the new Waste Management franchise will be new rolling bins and a more convenient system whereby recyclables do not have to be sorted. An education and awareness campaign will also be launched this fall to encourage residents to recycle as much as possible of their household and business waste stream.
But the expiration of the Shores’ contract obligations did not coincide with the County’s schedule for awarding the franchise bid and commencing that service on Oct. 1.
Faced with the potential of double-digit increases in costs, the Shores Town Council negotiated a three-year extension of the Town’s waste and recycling hauling contracts with Republic Services several months ago.
That extension was for the same service the Town had previously — twice per week trash pickup at the side or sometimes the back door of the house, plus once per week recycling pickup using a two-bin system and once per week yard waste pickup.
When the Town Council voted to renew its contract with Republic Services for trash and recycling service for another three years, Indian River County had not yet awarded a new franchise to Waste Management for the whole county’s recycling pickup, creating a two-and-a-half year overlap in the balance of the Shores’ contract with Republic and the Oct. 1 start date of Waste Management’s new exclusive franchise with the County.
The County’s new franchise deal gave Waste Management the recycling and trash territory in the South County that Republic has until Sept. 30. So technically, by the terms of the inter-local agreement the Shores signed many years ago, the Town would be in violation of its arrangement with Indian River County.
But the Town and Republic were happy with the existing business relationship.
Republic offered to match Waste Management’s competitive pricing, and the Town Council listened to concerns from its largest gated community, John’s Island, about the fact that all Republic personnel who enter the gates have already submitted to full background checks.
Commissioner Bob Solari told Burke that the inter-local agreement needs to be changed, and that the County has known for some time that it needs to be changed. The Board voted 5-0 to direct staff to bring the proposed changes back for a vote.
But so the Shores doesn’t have to fully exit the agreement, Burke and the County’s legal staff will now try to come up with an amended agreement as a patch so the Shores can stay in the Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District and also carry out the balance of their contract with Republic.
Burke said some of the County’s contract pricing with Waste Management may need to be adjusted, as bids were accepted figuring the economies of scale for a territory which included the 3,500 or so residences and businesses in the Shores.
Chairman Wesley Davis reminded the County staff that “The Shores residents are County residents, too,” and advised against developing an us versus them posture on the recycling contracts. The cities and county already have enough things to argue about, Davis said, without adding recycling to the list.
In other matters related to recycling, the Board of County Commissioners voted to publish a request for any and all innovative partnership ideas for sorting, recovering and recycling different types of materials to boost the County’s recycling numbers. Currently Indian River County recycles about half the volume that the state wants to see in five years’ time.
The Shores Town Council is set to announce the plan to stay with Republic during its regular Town Council meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday in Council Chambers at Indian River Shores Town Hall.
