Nelsonville joins solid waste council of governments

Nelsonville joined the Southeast Ohio Area Resources Council of Governments.

City Council approve a resolution authorizing the move during a recent meeting. The documents were signed Friday and live streamed on the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District’s Facebook page.

A recent community meeting was held about the status of the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center and the recently formed Southeast Ohio Area Resources Council of Governments (SOAR) between the Athens Hocking Solid Waste District (SWD) and the village of Amesville. SOAR will be able to legally conduct operations beginning on June 17.

During the May 23 meeting, Crissa Cummings, the executive director of the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center (AHRC), addressed the crowd to help clarify AHRC’s role and operation going forward. Additionally the cities of Logan and Nelsonville are due to begin their ordinance reading process to join the COG, she said.

“Many people have no idea what the recycling center actually does,” Cummings said. “We have been in the backdrop, in the supportive infrastructure that has been around for years. We don’t get a lot of press. We’re not really great at branding ourselves. We just do the work that allows for a lot of other showier projects to actually exist.”

Cummings explained that every piece of recycling that comes through AHRC’s facilities is shipped to specialized processing plants around the country and fully recycled into new products or materials.

Following Cummings’ explanations, Jane Forrest Redfern, the SWD director, updated the audience as well, sharing her work to create a solid waste management plan. Although a management plan was submitted in November, a new plan was created due to AHRC becoming unable to pick up recycling when their contract with the city of Athens was not renewed, she said.

When re-writing the plan, Redfern found a fee increase would be necessary to maintain the current level of service in the area, she said. However, simply raising garbage fees would not be enough for this maintenance, which prompted the SWD to instead implement “improved parcel” fees, Redfern added. This fee comes out to $24 per year on citizen’s taxes for only improved land parcels, she said.

The proposed improved parcel fee must be approved by the county commissioners and go through the public hearing process. There will be two public hearings regarding this topic, with one occurring in June and one in July, she said. The county commissioners are expected to vote on this issue during the week of July 15, Redfern added.

Also during the meeting, Athens City Council President Sam Crowl updated the audience on the city’s possible involvement with the COG.

Crowl said the Athens City Council has already completed a first reading of an ordinance to allow the city’s service-safety director to join the COG. Moving forward, he explained the council’s role in the process, stating “All we can do is authorize them to sign a contract.”

He explained his personal advocacy to work with AHRC and join the COG, but continued to emphasize that the council does not hold the power to simply join the new organization.

“Ultimately, the power is in the hands of the city administration,” Crowl said. “Now, I believe the city council is fully on board and will have the votes to authorize the service-safety director to join the COG. I also believe, through many conversations, the service-safety director will join the COG … I believe the mayor is behind it … the administration is behind it.”