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10/21/1997 - 00003757CITY OF FRIDLEY ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY & ENERGY COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 21, 1997 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Sielaff called the October 21, 1997, meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Brad Sielaff, Jack Velin, Rich Svanda, Bruce Bondow, Rosalie Landt, Peter Panchyshyn Members Absent: Dean Saba Others Present: Julie Jones, Recycling Coordinator Deb Osgood, Waste Management APPROVAL OF SEPTEMBER 16, 1997, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY & ENERGY COMMISSION MINUTES: MOTION by Mr. Svanda, seconded by Mr. Bondow, to approve the September 16, 1997, Environmental Quality & Energy Commission minutes. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SIELAFF DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. NEW BUSINESS: a. Discussion of curbside recycling program status/promotional opportunities Ms. Jones introduced Deb Osgood from Waste Management. She stated the purpose for discussing the current status of the curbside recycling program was to evaluate Fridley's goals for recycling levels and to brainstorm about possible recycling education opportunities. She explained that the comparison of 1996 to 1997 tonnages may be misleading since Waste Management may not be including totals for multi-family accounts in their most recent reports. Ms. Osgood stated she would further investigate and give Ms. Jones an answer to that question. She stated the City's goal of recycling 500 pounds per year per household is not unreasonable. She stated this reflects a level of 42 pounds per month per household, and Fridley single family households are now recycling about 38 pounds per month per household. However, the City has room for improvement since Waste Management usually sees an average of about 50 pounds per month per household. Mr. Sielaff questioned why the participation numbers are much improved with Waste ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY & ENERGY COMMISSION MINUTES OCTOBER 21, 1997 PAGE 2 Management, but the tonnage numbers are not increasing at the same rate. Ms. Osgood stated she did not have a good explanation for that, but it may be that they calculate totals differently than SuperCycle did. She also explained that participation numbers are only as accurate as the click counts the drivers take daily on their routes. Ms. Jones asked Ms. Osgood what could be done as far as publicity to improve participation. Various advertising methods were discussed. Mr. Sielaff stated he believed it is important to attempt to put an article on recycling in each issue of the City newsletter. It would be especially effective, he thought, to put goals and recycling tonnages in the articles. Ms. Jones stated she would need to investigate whether or not that would be an added cost to the City or if it could be incorporated into the existing budget. Mr. Sielaff questioned if there are questions that could be included in the citizen survey that would give more information about the effectiveness of the program. Ms. Landt asked if there is money budgeted that could be used to target households that are not participating. Ms. Jones stated she thought that could be accommodated within the present budget; however, there would be a great deal of staff time involved in determining where those non-participating households are. Ms. Landt also stated there may be an opportunity to educate new residents through the block captains. She thought the Police Department may design a newsletter that could include recycling information. Ms. Jones stated she would investigate that option. The Commission members thanked Ms. Osgood for coming to the meeting. b. Review Recycling Center RFPs Ms. Jones explained the proposals received and how she determined her estimates of quantities of recyclables and costs. The metals RFP was discussed first. She explained that Great Western was the lowest cost proposal; however, the main risk with the companies other than Weyerhaeuser, was that they do not know clearly how they would penalize the City for contaminated loads. She explained Weyerhaeuser's method of calculating moisture content deductions. After much discussion, Mr. Sielaff stated he was inclined to choose the lowest cost ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY & ENERGY COMMISSION MINUTES OCTOBER 21, 1997 PAGE 3 proposal. MOTION by Mr. Svanda, seconded by Mr. Velin, to accept the proposal from Great Western for metals redemption services at the Recycling Center UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SIELAFF DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. Ms. Landt and Mr. Velin suggested that the Commission investigate further the option of the City buying its own semi-truck trailers and bidding the full trailer loads of aluminum out to the highest bidder. Ms. Jones explained the three qualifying proposals received for the miscellaneous recyclables RFP which is in addition to the metals RFP. Her initial review of the BFI proposal indicated that it was the lowest cost option; however, more detailed review shortly before the meeting brought her to severely question the accuracy of BFI's market value projections. She stated if her estimates more closely reflect current market values, the Weyerhaeuser proposal is a lower cost option. She warned that if market prices improve, the BFI proposal is probably better. The details in differences in service from BFI's and Weyerhaeuser's proposals were discussed by the Commission. MOTION by Mr. Svanda, seconded by Ms. Landt, to approve the Miscellaneous Recyclables Transport and Marketing Proposal from Weyerhaeuser. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SIELAFF DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. c. Review City Survey questions Ms. Landt stated she felt question #84 was misleading. She felt that it should be reworded to state that the fee is being changed to $24/year. Mr. Svanda suggested that an additional question should be added before question #71 that asks: "Are you participating in the curbside recycling program?" The reason for this would be to allow respondents to skip the following section. Ms. Landt suggested that they may want to ask a question regarding residents' interest in participating in the GAP program if it could save them $ /year. Ms. Jones stated she would forward the Commission's suggestions to the City Manager. ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY & ENERGY COMMISSION MINUTES OCTOBER 21, 1997 PAGE 4 d. Questions for November 18, 1997, Discussion with City Councilmembers Mr. Sielaff stated he felt the main reason for meeting with the Council is to express the Commission's interest in being involved in the budget process. The other issues is determining the Council's view of the roll of the Commission. Mr. Svanda stated he would be interested in discussing mass transit with the Council and finding out if there is any new information on light rail. Mr. Sielaff stated he is also curious to know what the Council is planning for Wellhead Protection or other water resource issues. 2. OLD BUSINESS: Due to the lateness of the hour, Mr. Sielaff asked to postpone the old business items. Ms. Jones stated that was possible, with the exception of the GAP information since she needed to distribute books and get these books back at the November meeting. a. Explanation of GAP's EcoTeam result calculations Ms. Jones explained that GAP's first EcoTeam workbook detailed the calculations used by homeowners for each action step. However, the new workbook being used by current EcoTeams is more simplified and GAP completes the more difficult calculations since they found the previous method was much too cumbersome for most people. Therefore, GAP has provided a copy of the old workbook for each Commission member to review. The old workbooks were distributed with instructions to return them to her at the November Commission meeting. ADJOURNMENT: MOTION by Mr. Svanda, seconded by Mr. Bondow, to adjourn the meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SIELAFF DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE OCTOBER 21, 1997, MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:46 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Julie A. Jones Staff Liaison to Commission