“The devil is in the details” seems to be the case concerning recycling in Greene County. With the dissolution of the Greene County Recycling Agency last March, providing recycling in the county fell in the lap of the city of Jefferson.
The county supervisors approved the needed 28E agreement with the city of Jefferson to provide recycling services for residents of the unincorporated areas of the county. It was assumed all county towns would do the same.
Under the old 28E agreements with Greene County Recycling Agency, recycle bins were placed in towns and county residents could take their recycling materials there. Jefferson city administrator Scott Peterson, during his monthly update for the supervisors, said the Churdan city council has chosen not to enter into an agreement with the city of Jefferson. “They’re going in a different direction, whatever that might be,” Peterson told the supervisors.
The bin for rural residents of the northwest portion of the county, however, is in Churdan. He said the county would continue to fulfill its obligations to the county, but was looking for someplace outside the city of Churdan to place a bin. “It the city of Churdan does not want to pay for the services we’re providing, we will not be providing that service,” he said.
The city of Scranton is in the same situation.
Supervisor Dawn Rudolph said the supervisors have talked about it, and their concern is that recycle bins not in towns would become dump sites. The challenge is to find convenient locations for rural residents to take their recyclables without the residents of towns that are not paying for the service taking their materials there as well. Peterson also told the supervisors that the heavy rain over the weekend had caused some backup of storm drains and that some residences had sewer backups as well. He said the city was considering a larger project than anticipated in the drainage district north of the fairgrounds, and that the city planned to hire a contractor to clean drainage tiles there. Peterson said there was silting and roots had grown into the tiles.
