- All right, sorry about that, everybody. Commissioner Madeira has joined us. So we are already on number
- 11 in our agenda. We approved all those minutes, forwarded the board meeting minutes to the next board
- meeting, and we're now at resolution 202607 to amend the district's fee resolution. Mr. McClassen.
- And if he, I'm going to ask if he can't that Joey long be allowed to share screen and audio to help
- with this. So as you can see in the memo in the packet that we're starting to run into some items that
- I guess we would not consider traditional household residential items, but, um,
- but we're getting them out of residences. The first being lithium ion batteries that have a capacity
- in excess of 300 watt hours. And these are going to be from roof installed solar panels. The batteries
- for those. I've got generators. Generators. We also currently have
- to Prius batteries the fire department brought to us after responding to a vehicle accident,
- which a little, that's not quite falling under, that's a little different scenario, but we get those.
- And those are substantially more expensive than the button batteries or your standard rechargeable tool
- battery. And then also,
- costs are just skyrocketing on damaged and defective batteries fall under just a generic DDR category,
- damaged, defective and recalled batteries. Is the sound working on there? Can you hear other people?
- Yeah, I can hear good.
- And Julia can get into some more of the specifics of cost and stuff. But then the other thing that we're
- getting into are the spray foam insulation do-it-yourself kits, which are not an aerosol can. And so
- our vendors consider them a compressed air cylinder. And then because they still have the residue from
- the insulation in them, which could potentially have some hazardous characteristics
- Those are awfully expensive on us as well. What's in the fee resolution that's proposed? The only changes
- are under the household hazardous waste category. I guess there is a corresponding change on the CESQT.
- Basically for those items,
- proposing that residents pay the lesser of 50% of the district costs are $500. This kind of gives you
- an idea of what our cost is on these things. Those previous batteries are going to cost about two grand
- apiece. Or more. Is there any way to recoup those costs? Because that should be
- the job of insurance. Well, like I said, the previous batteries are a little bit different scenario.
- But, you know, well, you know, in our internal discussions and talking about that, I mean, there's still
- a battery and they will limit of lifespan. So how long is it till somebody decides to change their own
- battery? You had an engine waste, you can do it. And then they're bringing that battery to us. Yeah.
- So my question about the previous batteries, if it's a car accident, that cost should be absorbed by
- an insurance company.
- because, yeah. And that's something we need to investigate. We don't have the accident report from that
- particular case. The fire department just showed up with two burnt batteries in a truck. So we took
- them rather than send them back down the road with them not knowing what to do with them. And a scenario
- like that is not specifically covered because that's not the resident bringing it to us. And that's
- a slightly different scenario.
- you know, insurance company, that's something that we need to investigate in instances where you have,
- we get something like that out of an auto accident and that's a different scenario. And then the other
- corresponding change on the CESQG price list is under batteries adding a call for pricing for lithium
- ions in excess of 300 watt hours. Now, why is
- on this uh price list it's um over 300 watt hours and in the fee text it's 400 watt hours uh because
- i didn't make the correction in the fee text joey 300 watt hour yeah 300 watt hours is what they are
- considering residential grade above that is
- I'm finding out is more of a commercial grade use. But there's a lot of applications out there. So like
- your electric scooters and stuff like that may have a 400 watt hour battery. So we will be getting them
- eventually. And right now it's being very hard to find somebody to take them from us. So like the car
- batteries, I'm still waiting on a price. I'm still waiting on information on how to package them up safely.
- and where I can ship them to. And it's just, you know, it's time for everything to catch up to what's
- out there. Yeah. I will offer one caveat with this that we hopefully will be addressing this again sometime
- next year. If you'll recall, there was a battery extended producer responsibility legislation that was proposed
- this last legislative session that unfortunately had great support but got caught up in just in the
- system of how things get processed and had to go to a second committee in the short session, there wasn't
- time to do that. But we've been told that that or similar legislation is going to be proposed this next
- legislative session. Something like that goes through.
- then there's potentially funding available to help us with the cost of dealing with some of those batteries.
- But in the meantime, the next bill you see from Argo before the board meeting is going to be eye opening.
- I have a question. So a lot of these batteries are really big and heavy. Like, do we have the equipment
- to like if the fire department comes and drops one off,
- I mean, how big and heavy are these things? They're like a normal car battery. So the reason why the
- fire department brought those in was they were still, they didn't know how hot they was and if they
- can catch on fire again. And they didn't have no safe way of storing them, which we have an outbuilding
- that's designed for that. So that's why we took those. I mean, and that caused us more problems because,
- you know, when I was working with the vendors that will take them from us, I can't tell them how many
- watt hours they are.
- you know, that was the first question is, you know, what size or I don't know because it's melted. So
- it's causing a lot of different issues, but we will find a way it's, you know, and going back to insurance,
- there is some cases where we do work with different towing companies when they clean up for X, we build
- a towing company and the towing company turns it into the insurance. So we have done stuff like that. Gotcha.
- Thank you. Because I'm thinking there might be a difference between, say, a Prius battery and a Tesla
- battery. I doubt we take Tesla batteries because they're- Not yet. In the first party, but yes, we have
- a Forklift, we have a Bobcat, we have Palifant. We have the ability to manage things with- Gotcha. Yeah.
- As I'm looking at the fee schedule here and you have
- number five and number six under the letter B. They're the same thing, the same feed. They seem to overlap.
- It's the same cap, but an undamaged lithium ion battery is going to have a different feed for us than
- a damaged one. Okay.
- but it's gonna be the same for the customer, for someone bringing it. Well, they depend on the size
- of it and what are, I mean, it's capped at 500, but a 500 watt hour lithium ion battery that's not damaged
- is gonna cost less than one that's damaged. So that 50%. So I mean, there comes a point where, yeah,
- you're gonna reach that $500 cap that's in there and it's gonna be the same.
- But depending on the size of the battery and whether or not it's damaged, if it's under 1,000 cost to
- us and we aren't at that $500, 50 percent, the cost will be different whether it's damaged or not. Damaged
- batteries are going to cost more to recycle. Got it. It has more to do with
- safety precautions that have to be taken to transport it. OK. But essentially, no matter what the condition,
- it's going to be 50% of the district's costs or up to $500. So for the damage defective recalled,
- is there? A minimum size that we would incur that we are charged for. Joey got a little tiny battery
- that's defective. Is that yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Well, I mean, so to put it in perspective, a cell phone batteries, if you take a cell phone battery
- that's undamaged, it's going to cost us, you know, probably less than 10 bucks. You take it for a damaged
- ones. I have to buy a five gallon bucket that caught, I would have to look up the price, but I think
- it's like $300 right now for a five gallon bucket to package damaged lithium ion batteries that I can
- only put 11 pounds of batteries in.
- And in that eleven pounds, they got to be packaged a certain way and they cannot touch. So that therefore,
- depending on the size, I may not be able to get eleven pounds of batteries in there. What do you put
- between them and the buffer? They have a fire retardant material. It's kind of kind of reminds you of
- like a vermiculite, but it's not. I mean, vermiculite's kind of reminds you like that. Yeah, OK. So
- A cell phone battery that's damaged. Do you? If you would be the cost for disposal would be part of
- that $300 for the bucket. Yeah, we would have to see like we would have to assess the size of the battery,
- which cell phones not very big. So in weigh it. And you know, we would take that 11 pounds in consideration
- of what we're paying for the bucket.
- And we just do the price that way. So. Still an estimate because you don't know how much you're talking
- about the bucket. You know, and if I'm OK, if you feel that we need to do a little more investigation
- and. You know. Tweaking on the map on this, I mean, that's we're not. We're not overwhelmed with these
- things right now. It's it's it's it's not going to.
- Well, a couple more might bankrupt us, but so there is no minimum size or capacity for the damaged batteries.
- If it's considered damage, it's a DDR battery and we have to send it out that way. OK. Which means which
- means it cannot be packaged with undamaged battery. Can you tell by looking that it's damaged every
- time? Oh, yeah. They're usually swollen or
- Some of them, we've had a few battery fires come in where people brought them in and they're on fire
- in their car. We've had a couple of those. So, I mean, it's pretty easy to tell. In their car on fire?
- Wow. Yeah, we've had a couple where we've had to dump them out in the parking lot and get extinguishers
- and get them put out. Oh my God. Well, who knew it was so exciting?
- And it's coming back to that legislation. I mean, and that's part of it that you have. I mean, the better
- manufacturers, the waste haulers, and in many instances, first responders are pushing. These things
- are, they're not safe to deal with. I mean, I don't know if you get, there was a couple of weeks ago,
- there was a semi with 37,000 pounds of lithium ion batteries in Hancock County that caught on fire and
- shut down the highway both directions. That stuff is super toxic.
- Yeah, to yeah. OK, so the legislation that was proposed this year and that might come back would make
- it the responsibility of the. The product with the battery or whoever made the battery or it well, they
- basically put a big chunk of the financial burden on them. So then so state states that have done this,
- you know the battery manufacturers put money into a fund and
- They have set up what they're terming. Joey, do you remember what BSO stands for? Battery Service
- Organization, something to that effect? Yes, something like that. So those BSOs then manage the fund
- and create the program within the state to deal with the collection of the lithium ion batteries, damaged
- and undamaged, and dispersing those funds to the
- people involved in the collection and transportation of the golf set. Well, hopefully they'll come back.
- So my other question was, um. Can the district immediately assess how much it's going to cost so that
- we somebody owns a big battery? How are you going to know what to target? Well, somebody brings in like
- a cell phone battery. We can weigh it and we know, you know, by the poundage, you know,
- it's going to fit in with 11 pounds. Now, if somebody brings like an e-bike battery, we have to measure
- that and try to figure out how many watt hours it is, whether or not it can go in one of our ways of
- recycling it. And, you know, by measuring it, I may only be able to get two or three e-bike batteries
- in a five gallon bucket where they don't touch and are safe with packing material around them. So it
- really is a case by case kind of
- like you're going to have to handle the battery to determine whether you know what the charges. Yeah,
- I mean, there's no way of knowing all the batteries out there and the sizes. I mean, there's just like
- e-bikes by theirself. There's hundreds of different sizes and stuff of e-bike betters in different shapes.
- It's just as labor intensive. Yeah, it's
- It's the DDR ones that become tricky. From our vendors for undamaged ones based on dimensions and watt
- hours, we can put together some pricing lists and know what it's going to be. But the damaged ones get
- tricky because size dictates how many can go in the bucket, weight dictates how many can go in the bucket,
- and that's where it gets a little tricky.
- an old battery that I find in a remote control under the couch or something that has some crusty stuff
- on it, is that considered? That's an alkaline battery. That the Alliance won't have crusty stuff on
- it. Yeah. But I will say- That one I can just put in the regular batteries. You can put it in the regular
- batteries. This is all talking about lithium-ion. Beyond this, that gets into something that we're also
- having to consider moving forward is we just have
- to collect batteries at all the sites. And if somebody puts damaged lithium ion batteries in there and
- they come in contact with each other or other batteries on the right type, we could have a problem.
- What kind of problem? A fire? Yeah, water intensifies the lithium ion battery. That's why the
- fire department, you know, I've met with them, done some trainings.
- they will actually dig a hole and bury the battery because it's better to smother it out versus spraying
- water on it because it just keeps going and intensifies. Has that ever been a problem that somebody's
- put Lizzie and I on it? To my knowledge, we have not had an incident at any of our sites except South
- Walnut. Yeah, yeah.
- The couple where people's pulled into the parking lot. One was something like, uh, they had a bunch
- of like watch batteries and some of them can be lithium ion and they was connected and caught on fire.
- And one was somebody took two nine boat batteries. So they got that, you know, the more rectangle shape
- and hooked them together and threw them in a cardboard box where they got hot enough where they caught
- the box on fire.
- I feel like there's a public service announcement. Can we get a lease on this? I think it would be kind
- of fun to put two 9-well batteries together. And that's another part of that proposed legislation is
- education and funding for statewide education.
- So right now we're paying $200 per five gallon bucket that holds 11 pounds. And I can buy a 55 gallon
- drum that holds more. We actually save a little bit of money by doing that for the bigger batteries.
- But again, they only accept up to 300 watt hours. Wait, so the five gallon bucket holds how much? 11 pounds.
- It's capped at 11 pounds. Yeah. And I'm sorry. What else did you say, John? A 55 gallon drum is $1,550,
- but I can put 400 pounds capped up to there. But again, I can't touch and I got to be packaged a certain
- way. And nothing over a 300 watt hour battery.
- And you said the five gallon bucket costs $500. What was it? And for, for, for batteries that aren't
- damaged and that's, that's part of what we do. We're not proposing to pass any of that cost on to the
- residents. Yeah. This is all for the DDR lithium ion batteries. It's not for any damage alkaline. They
- don't cost us anymore or something like that.
- damaged nickel cadmium or damaged nickel metal. They don't cost us anymore. It's strictly damaged lithium
- ion. I mean, it are, you know, just even, even for the undamaged ones, um, our employees that has Matt
- spending an ordinate amount of time taping batteries. Taping them? That the terminals can't touch. Okay.
- And shipping. So much fun. Um,
- So okay so there is a company that takes them and charges us and do we know what happens after that
- to the batteries? I don't know what happens to damaged ones because again this is all relatively new
- so I haven't got to see or been to one of the facilities of what they do but the other ones get recycled
- broken down in commodities
- So like your alkaline battery, they're going to separate the little metal around it, recycle that, the
- cardboard, all that stuff they're going to try to reuse or separate everything they can and put it back
- out. But the DDR batteries, I'm not really for sure. Do we shift these or put them on a truck or who?
- Yeah, the vendor comes down with the truck.
- I mean, Joey, if you feel like you can do a good estimate, then I'm OK with this. I think it's still
- going to be a bargain for people, for the larger ones, the 300. Yeah, the larger ones are the bigger
- issue because even the cell phone battery that's swollen is still only going to cost a few dollars.
- It's not going to be an exorbitant amount of money that damaged cell phone batteries. It's small enough.
- And then that's not necessarily what's hurting us. It's the car batteries, the solar, or I guess the
- EV car battery. So how many of those have we collected in the last couple months? The car batteries?
- The ones that are number five would apply, the 400 watt hours.
- greater. It should be 300, so I need to fix that. Right. 300. I don't know. We've only collected two
- car batteries that is right now considered DDR. We have considered taking some solar power powered batteries.
- I think we've taken six of those. So not a whole lot, but lithium ion is like the trend that everything's
- going to right now. So anything that
- It's going to be rechargeable. It's going to be that battery. And the more watt hours means the longer
- charge run time. So they're going to be trying to get as much stuff out there as possible. I mean, even
- your drill batteries, I've seen them now getting up. They're real close to 300 watt hours, depending
- on the size. All the new lawn mowers is going to battery operated. That's what I was going to say. I
- have a lawn mower that uses three.
- Yeah. Okay. Well. It is what it is. I guess we we put this out there just I mean, obviously it's it's
- the board's decision. But the costs are getting to the point that particularly not knowing what is going
- to happen with revenue for 2027, but it's a concern. Mm hmm.
- I think it's page, yeah, the last, it says page six of six. So it's right after the, it's part of the
- fee schedule. So it's the last page of the fee schedule stuff. Is that from the- The CESQG universal
- waste prices? That one. Yeah. What is the CESQG? Commercially Exempt Small Quantity Generator. So that's
- a commercial entity of business. Yeah.
- That's right. There, there's, you know, in the DOT and the EPA regulations, you know, depending on the
- volume of past or this, of what's defined as hazardous material that you generate, you know, you could,
- if you're below a threshold, you're considered a commercially small quantity generator, and we can deal
- with those entities without jeopardizing our record exemption.
- So would their pricing be the same as residential or are we going to charge them the full price of what
- it costs to displace these? Full price. Full price, okay. Yeah. That's why it just says on there, the
- call for pricing.
- And you'll see in there under the paints and flammables, that last one is a foaming aerosol can, and
- that's like your track seal that's in an aerosol can. The ones that we're trying to address with the
- change in here, then you go to your home improvement store and get the three to five gallon canister.
- That's what's considered a compressed cylinder, and we would not take those.
- from a commercial entity. If you're doing installation as part of your job, you're probably not a CESQG.
- Right. So if someone brought it in, is that on this list? No, not on the CESQG list. That's in the text under HHW
- Part B, because we have seen those. Last invoice we got, those were $1,400 apiece. Did you suppose that?
- Yeah. How big are they? Joey, how big were those foaming insulation canisters? So anywhere from maybe
- like a football size up to most common is like your helium tank. Have you seen the pink helium tanks?
- That's what the most that's what the most common is. And you can go buy those at your big box stores.
- Yeah. It's like a do it yourself kit. It's part A and part B. Yeah. Well, it makes sense to all the
- logic makes sense to me.
- So this is gonna go to the board. That's up to you. So in the actual resolution, it says. The last whereas
- clause. The board was noticed and conducted a public meeting on July 9th. Yes, so so we can't vote on
- the resolution has to be introduced at one meeting. And then you.
- I think you only have to wait like two weeks, but you have to do it and you have to introduce it. And
- then wait at least two weeks and do a public hearing and then you can vote on it. So the last time we
- introduced it at one meeting at the next meeting, we did the public hearing and then turned around and
- had to vote on it. All right, so.
- with bringing this to the full board? Mm-hmm. I am. All righty then. Thanks, Mr. Long. He's not done.
- Oh, okay. Thanks for this item. Well, here you want some others, probably. Let's see, going back to
- the agenda, we've got public utility easement. Oh, yeah. From the National Guard.
- from the National Guard. Yeah. The National Guard. That's what it says. I didn't catch that. It's GERD.
- GERD, well. Sorry, it's making me laugh. It's been a busy couple of weeks. No judgment. So at any rate,
- yeah, so I'm on page 29. So people are probably aware the National Guard Recruiting Office next door
- to us recently went through a pretty substantial renovation.
- Uh, Joey and I actually got to go in and tour the new building and it was, they completely gutted it.
- It's all new inside and it's, it's not, it's very nice. Um, but at any rate, uh, so as a part of this,
- uh, they wanted, want to install four EV charging stations that would be the southeast corner of their
- lot, which is what abuts against our property. Um,
- And then right off the parking lot is the concrete pad where a transformer would have to be installed.
- And so Duke needs to traverse our property to run the electrical lines to the EV charging station. So
- Duke's saying, until the property owner gives us an easement, we can't do anything. And that's for the
- property owner. So the armory in Florida, they told us that it's an open parking lot.
- and they would be metered, but they intend for the charging stations to be open to the general public
- when not in use by National Guard. They do have, Joey, do you remember, did they say three or four cars,
- cars they use for recruiting business that are gonna be EV vehicles? I do not, but they said that they
- was investing and slowly going that way. They was moving to more electric vehicles.
- And then the one caveat with this one is, if you'll notice, attached to the resolution, the easement
- documents say draft. I am still waiting for Duke Energy is supposed to be providing the documents to
- describe the easement that they need to do this. And so if the committee approves moving this to the board,
- It's still kind of on hold because if I can't get those documents before the board packet goes out Friday,
- then I'll have to pull this off the agenda. Is this going to impact any trees on our property? Not in
- that area, no. I'm trying to picture, is this behind the administration building or? It's north of the
- administration building. Coming off of Walnut Street.
- It's about 20, it's about 20 foot off their parking lot. So if you look at a National Gardens parking
- lot, it's about 20 foot and about 10 foot from the road or 15 foot from the road somewhere like there.
- So it's just a open grass area that we currently mow. So the behind to the north of our administration
- building, there's the creek that runs that we've kind of let go back to a natural habitat. And this
- is probably
- 100 feet north of that. Yeah. And that's all just a grass field right now. And is there actually going
- to be dirt moved in that area, or is it just access in case they need it? The armory's contractor may
- have inadvertently installed the conduit already. Oh, oops.
- Wow. It didn't disturb your operations, I guess. No, and even if they had to trench it all out, it wouldn't
- impact our operations. Oh, I see.
- The easement is permanent. It's not just for the construction. The easement will be Duke Energy's easement.
- It will be a permanent utility easement. How many square feet is it on our property? Off the top of
- my head, I don't know. Is it running from this walnut to
- parking lot kind of area. Yeah, you can kind of see on page 33, they'll come off Walnut going due west
- and then we'll go due north. And it says 15 foot proposed electric one way and 40 foot. The other, I
- don't know, there's a few different measurements in here, but we can get to square foot. We can, I mean,
- we can get that square footage. But Joanne, Dan, and I reviewed this with, one was from the Indian National
- Guard and one was from the feds. So we didn't mess with them too much. What do you mean one was? Well,
- they had two representatives there to explain to how
- to explain to us and show us the area, infected area, you know, what it was that was being proposed
- and what Duke was supposed to be drafting up. And one was from Indian National Guard and the other was
- from federal, was a federal employee. I don't know exactly how that all fits. But I, you know,
- and I have, Legal has reviewed all of this and, you know,
- that are much legal issue there other than what the easement means to our deed. But he didn't see any
- problems. He and I kind of agreed that it doesn't impact us. There's not really any reason to not grant
- it. And if the EV stations are going to be available to the general public, then it supports our mission.
- Yeah, that's true.
- So are we okay with moving this to the full board provided we have all the legal necessary documents?
- Yeah, that would be my caveat. Yeah, it sounds like yes. And then if I don't get them to the committee
- comfortable with. Be making the decision to not put this on the agenda. Yeah. All right, next we have.
- The community grant program applications. I believe we have $17,000 left. Yes, and I am sorry I forgot
- to put that in the memo. I crunched those numbers and it is. I did too. All programs do not exhaust
- exhaust the appropriation. They come to 13,741 dollars.
- Right. So have committee members had a chance to take a look at these? Any. Things that stand out questions
- comments. I just and just for information, I would know.
- that Ellie Spire from Garden Quest and Matthew Austin from our CDC, who also is from Garden Quest, do
- appear to be on the team's meeting. They have a specific, a grant specific to Garden Quest, and I believe
- Garden Quest is also a component of the other three grant applications. Yes. So. Great.
- If we have questions, they are present. The review rubric that the three members of the CAC used. The
- last item is cash or in-kind matches, but that doesn't have a score. Is that just an FYI or?
- In the rubric that was generated, and this is the same rubric that we used in January for the first
- grant award, it was not given a numerical score. It was just noting that either they proposed a cash
- dollar amount match or contribution or in-kind contribution of labor or something. Then at that point,
- it's up to the applicant to
- assign a dollar value to that based on wages or however they want to calculate that. So did they assign
- a dollar amount? I guess some of them did and some of them didn't. And I would also note for the record
- for the committee's information that I mentioned, Matt Austin, who's our current CAC chair,
- is affiliated with Garden Quest. He was in attendance at the CDC meeting where they discussed this,
- but he did not. He recused himself from the discussion and voting on the grant applications. He recused
- himself from the discussion as well? Yes. Okay. Yes. Due to Garden Quest's involvement with all of the
- applications.
- We don't have like a minimum score that they have to get to get funded. No, we never established anything
- like that. It's just more of a reference point.
- This is very minor, just a clarification on when the application from Garden Quest itself refers to
- Waste Reduction District of Monroe County Fermentation Bucket Systems. Yeah. What is that?
- Allow to have audio visual, please. I mean, I guess I'm just wondering, are they going to be branded
- that or is it just referring to? A year or so ago, they came and we didn't have a grant program at the
- time, but they came with a proposal seeking some funding assistance from the district to do the Wakashi
- fermentation bucket systems that are
- district-branded, and that they made available on a trial basis to Grove County residents. I remember.
- We can see you, Ellie, but we can't hear you. Okay. Hi. Can you hear me now?
- Yeah, so what Tom said is exactly correct. We applied for funding for 50 buckets. They are non spigoted
- buckets and they have waste Monroe County Waste Reduction District, the logo saying thank you right
- on front and center on the buckets. And so what this grant will take these same buckets and convert them to
- the highest demand bucket in our Try It program, which is with a spigot. So all community members will
- have the opportunity to try both a non, a bucket without a spigot, and a bucket with a spigot, because
- we also have 50 non-spigoted buckets from IDEM as well.
- And we're just saying that there's a wait list now. So yeah, we're just taking the ones that the district
- already are requesting that the ones that the district already funded, we now convert upgrade by adding
- in the spigoted parts and the extra, there's additional things. There's a sieve, there's O-rings, there's
- other things that we have to add to make them spigoted. Okay.
- we can put yeah and so those they'll still have the waste reduction district logo on them. Honestly
- the main reason I don't have a whole lot of questions is because I did hear all the presentations last
- year and I saw what you all did and you know all of these are some form of utilizing your same approach
- and implementing your program. So I mean that is like my only question.
- talking about the specific thing. So that's great. And just to let you know, we had our first program
- of the year and we have one coming this Saturday and we don't have any spigoted buckets to give it to.
- Basically when people ask, we're going to say you have to go on a wait list. So we see the demand, we
- see the need to convert. We have lots of non-spigoted ones, but people want to try both.
- What is the benefit of the spigot? The benefit of the spigot is that you are able to capture the fertilizer
- out of it. It also makes the force taking after you ferment the food waste, it's an easier way if there's
- excess liquid to siphon that off whether you're using the fertilizer or not.
- Um, but a lot of people have gardens or they want to fertilize their yard or this actually, this liquid
- can be used in septic systems. It can be used to clean out your sinks, your toilets. So a lot of people
- are going, wow, there's another thing that I can, that another benefit to this, even if I don't have
- a garden and I want to try it. Um, but then there's extra so said, but then there are some, um,
- we're seeing sort of like a 90% of people want to, in their households, continue with spigoted buckets,
- but we do see 10% do not like the spigots and they like the simplicity of the non-spigots. It's just
- a little, there's a little extra work that you have to do with the non-spigoted buckets to take care
- of the proportion of liquid to,
- fermented food waste. Yeah, I guess I don't know why anybody would want one without a spigot. We do
- have some people. Yeah. Well, it's space. It's less expensive if they're going to go ahead after the
- Try It program. They're half the price because you don't have all those working parts. So there's also,
- you know, long time down the road, you have more things to deal with. If you have a kindergartener who
- knows how to turn,
- turn the spigot, you may have more messes. Like there's, there's things like that. Um, so some people
- choose that they don't want the spigot, but yes, in our household, we'd like the spigot at once. So
- you at Garden Quest, um, let people have them for free for a trial period. And then if they want to,
- uh, continue, they have to pay for them. Is that how you work?
- So they the try it program is for four months we found that people develop habits of within four months
- and they can decide that they like it or they don't four months also
- is what we find is it takes one to four months to ferment food waste in the ground where it's gone.
- So they're gonna see the entire cycle. Then after that, they turn the buckets back in and they can say,
- where do I get these buckets? And there's plenty of vendors out there that sell buckets. We also, they
- can choose to purchase them as a fundraiser for Garden Quest.
- So, but they have the options and we tell them even, you know, here's, if you wanna make your own,
- go for it. So we provide everyone the route that they wanna go, but do they have to buy it from us?
- No, but a lot of people say, where do we get it? We like how you have created your bucket systems. So
- let's support local and let's support the organization that's giving us the free educationals.
- But we, we do offer them, you know, you don't have to get it from us. So I had a question on the wonder
- lab application because part of it, this is more for Tom, probably than Ellie. Okay. Part of it is,
- uh, funds for an intern. Um, what 12, 1250. No.
- $2,500 for an intern or two semesters of an intern to help with a program. Is that an expense we're
- allowed to cover? I thought when we established the program, there was something about not paying personnel.
- We didn't have a conversation. I don't remember saying we weren't going to do it though.
- either what the outcome of the negotiation was. Okay. The only specific thing in here is grant funds
- may not be used for payment of waste disposal or recycling services, i.e. hauling disposal fees.
- advertising, installation services, or administrative expenses. What's an administrative expense? Yeah,
- what's an administrative expense? And then how would we provide money? Because isn't it on a reimbursement
- basis? How would we provide money for an interchange? Well, I mean, it's
- For something like that, it's one thing. If the grant is set up for materials and supplies, the preference
- is that they give us the list of what they need and place it in potential vendors, and then we will
- go and purchase those using our tax exemption. Otherwise, they get reimbursed minus the sales tax,
- that we don't pay. An intern is a temporary thing, but we obviously couldn't pay that until we saw a
- W2, 1099. I mean, we'd have to have proof that the expense was incurred.
- So like at the end of the year, we would pay for all the wages of that year for that person. I mean,
- it's the water lab. So I would guess they could float somebody for a few months without reimbursement,
- but just trying to think through. I mean, yeah, the other degree area is, you know, where does a temporary
- internship fall?
- under the term administrative services. I can seek a legal opinion if you want. I can ask Wonder Lab
- for more information about what is this proposed internship and what would be the duties. I would also
- question is the intern doing things other than
- program this grant is supporting. Yeah. Yeah, I would want to understand how many hours a week they're
- working so that see if it would logically match. Get a legal opinion of how this fits into the criteria
- of the grant. And then, yeah, and then we need a job description, proposed hours.
- I can certainly request that from Wonders. Maybe we can ask Ellie if she's still there. I mean, it depends
- on the organization.
- I can ask a question. So the idea of what I've discussed with Ella, who's the experience director and
- who manages right now all the food waste that goes into their worm composting systems is this in turn
- will now be functioning as
- their main waste, food waste reduction person. So managing their in-ground worm composting systems,
- collecting, dealing with everything in the wonder lab to get students to collect the food waste. So
- I'm not sure in terms of
- what the the intern will be doing. I'll take that back. I don't know exactly what the intern's going
- to be doing to help Ella with school groups and camp groups that are going to be going through Wonder
- Lab. Is she helping with marketing materials. Is she going to be teaching school groups as they come
- this person as they come through. But what I do know is this person is going to be in charge of all
- of the food waste
- once it gets into the buckets and bearing it at both that wonder lab and then being part of the, or
- being the person who then transports it out to Will Dettmer community gardens and is trained by, um,
- by myself to bury it at Will Dettmer gardens. And so we, there's a partnership that has, will evolve
- through this and they will,
- make sure that it is done appropriately, responsibly, so that Will Dettmer Gardens gets soil. Okay.
- It also looks like, I guess, page 66 of the packet, you know, in their answer to question A, you know,
- the $4,500 for Bokashi composting system and accompanying supplies, but then it goes on to say that this
- will increase the amount of items to be composted, reducing museums overall waste while serving Wonder
- Labs core pillars. So I get that in a broader context, I think the grant involves more than just Okashi.
- Yeah. And so, you know, as I said, that if part of it is taking the fermented food waste out to Weldetner
- to be buried, I mean, I think that still fits into what they proposed in the grant.
- Yeah, and then I don't want to speak for Ella in terms of everything that they're going to do with all
- the groups that are coming through. But what I saw them do as school groups were coming in is they all
- have their lunch bags. They go into some of their meeting rooms. They have recycling trash. And now
- we'll have food waste set up. And they always train all the teachers and whoever's the parents who are
- assisting. This is what we do at Wonder Lab with our waste.
- So how that intern will be involved, I'm not sure in that component. But that's what Ella and I, or
- that's what Ella sort of showed me. That's in general what we discussed. And it also, the last sentence
- of the third paragraph on that same page, request funds for an intern to collect food waste for the
- Wilkoshe buckets and maintain the Vermicost bins. So the Vermicost bins. That's exactly what I highlighted.
- Yeah, and with the Vermicost bins, that's a separate,
- process in the Bokashi. It's actually going to be the same thing. So they're converting their vermicomposting
- bins over into Bokashi bins. So it's the same thing. They're vermicomposting bins with Bokashi being
- used as the substrate for the worms. OK. Thanks, Ellie. There you go. OK. That gets pretty involved.
- At least it sounds like it.
- Yeah, so Tom, if you could check with Wonderlab about how many hours these interns will work and what
- their rate of pay would be, and then check with legal if we are allowed to reimburse that and help.
- Yeah, exactly. We can do that. Do you think, would it help if I asked Wonderlab to have somebody attend
- the board meeting?
- I mean, I would never tell a grand advocate that they can't attend the board meeting where their application
- is being considered, but as it stands right now, there's no requirement for them to be present when
- the application is considered. Let them know and extend the invitation. Yeah, I would let all four of
- them know, extend an invitation. I don't want to single them out. If the committee agrees to move all
- four forward to the full board, I can certainly
- reach out to all the applicants tomorrow and let them know that they will be on the agenda for the board
- meeting next Thursday that they're welcome to attend and be available to answer any questions. I do
- have another question about this one that I don't expect anyone here to really have an answer to that
- maybe we could find out because $500 is for the one and a half hour training
- And one year of support for wonder lab staff and volunteers. And I just don't know what that really
- means. I need a year of support. Oh, what page 72 packet? Sure. So, so yeah, I can answer that because
- we've been doing the, um,
- that with our triad program and with all of our educational. So that means that after any household
- or any group goes through the training, we wanna, we're trying to build the confidence for them to know
- and understand what to do with their food waste. So let's go to Wonder Lab, for example. So they're
- in the triad program right now. They have two buckets and they sent me pictures of
- what it looked like after they opened up their bucket and they had concerns about white fuzzy mold.
- And I said, so they're texting me, so this is the support. They text me, they say, what's going on?
- I said, don't worry, this white fuzzy mold is actually a beneficial mold. This is actually a visual
- indicator that you are doing a fantastic job, keep it up.
- Next thing, well, why do I have oil in my fertilizer? Oh, and I explained that. So this is the kind
- of support we give if someone wants to bring their bucket to us and we do a pH test because they're
- concerned that it's not acidic enough, we're gonna pH test their ferment, their fertilizer. So if a
- part breaks, we're going to help them problem solve or fix it for them. That's the kind of support we're
- talking about.
- Mm hmm. Anything else? Um, no. So what you're saying is that they would be paying you a kind
- of a subscription fee for technical assistance. Yeah. Yeah. And if anything goes wrong with the buckets,
- yeah, we're, we're taking care of it. Okay. And the training is done by you. Yes. Yes.
- question. Jody, do you have any concerns or questions? No, just listening in because it's the first
- time I've been through this process. Well, it's the first time we've been through it too.
- Do you find it interesting that the parks scored lower than the other ones? I mean, I think there's
- some variation on how people have gauged the number of participants impacted. So 60 residents or 50
- Okashi systems.
- I mean, you could have estimated 150. That's the household of three for each one. I think they were
- kind of conservative. I don't know if that was one they scored lower transferability. I think, I don't
- know why they only got a three.
- Maybe because they've already been doing it. So it's not as innovative because that was one of the scores.
- But I mean, transferability, maybe city parks and recreation could do. Yeah, I think these are all good
- applications. I do too.
- I mean, they certainly helped to support the mission and they're all composting food waste related,
- which is something that we have previously identified as something that we need to focus more on. Ellie
- has her hand up. Do you have something to add? Yeah, I just wanted to add that Will Dettmer Gardens
- has only so far in terms of their
- Bokashi exploration. They have provided the land for the pits and we have done, we've completed two
- educationals out there. This would be now engaging. Like if you are a gardener at Will Dettmer gardens
- with that plot, you get two buckets. If you no longer rent that plot, the buckets stay with that. So
- this is a whole new level of, um,
- into making it, this is what Monroe County residents do when they garden at Will Dettmer Gardens. So
- this is a whole new level. And as well as all these partnerships that are starting to develop. Exciting.
- Yeah, where Will Dettmer is paying for soil. They are super excited about this concept of, oh, if people,
- Wonder lab has food waste and they want to get rid of it. And they want to teach all these school groups,
- but they don't have the place at wonder lab to bury all this. And we'll Detmer is begging for more soil.
- They'll take wonder labs, food waste. Um, so that, that's, that's the idea of, of all these, um, is
- taking it to another level, another stop. So,
- There seems to be a discrepancy in the Monroe County Parks and Rec dollar amount for their requests.
- So when I look at page 57, their supply list, the total is 49, 22, 33. Is there something to be added
- to that? Because on their application, they asked for 5,082. So where are you?
- Do we have to add the five? 52, page 52 of the packet, where they just did the total funds requested,
- 49, 22, 33. It's page 57 on their supply list. Okay, so now our supplies. It's 49, 22.
- How is there a discrepancy? Because on their application form they say 5082. Where? Number seven. On
- their application form. Are you sure? Page 52? I see 49, 22, 33. Say what? 5082.
- Well, mine, ours have been like, whited out and corrected, it looks like. Look at mine. Look. You see
- how it's cut? Yeah. You know what I mean? Mine's mine different than yours. I sent the same packet to
- everybody. What the heck? OK. Are you on the 622 or 6226 ECM packet amended? Mm-hmm. Yes.
- I am. That is super weird. I don't know how that could happen. Well, you did send an amended packet.
- All the change on the amended packet was the date on the agenda. It said Wednesday instead of Tuesday.
- That's so weird. If I click view, is there something show high?
- Yeah. Okay. Well, nevermind. There's no discrepancy, apparently. That's so strange. That's really bizarre.
- I'm baffled by that. But yours where it says 4922, it kind of has a dark line under it, like it was
- maybe... Right, like it's a pretty heavy line, but it's like they typed with underline on, on top of
- where you already had a blank space underlined.
- Oh, I trust you. Now I'm typing the wrong amount in here. It's a ghost in the machine. We're all looking
- at the same thing. Oh, wait a minute. I know why. Because I filtered the comments to just have my comments.
- What if I turn on this thing? No, I did turn on that thing, didn't I? Now it's showing all comments.
- Any people make comments? There's some AutoCAD text in the Eastman thing. I don't know. Well.
- There it is. Okay. What? I did. There was also, okay, it was a comment. It was a correction on a PDF.
- that I had turned off because I only wanted to see my comments. Okay. Sorry about that. So it is. I'm
- glad there was an explanation. Okay. I'm glad I'm not just going nuts. They corrected it though. They
- corrected it. Okay. That's bizarre. Right. And, and the, the comments are by blank. Like it's, it says,
- you know, you can filter the comments and I'm just blank. Okay. Wild. All right. Okay. So that's a question
- for Jacob.
- She's the one that did it. OK. All right. So are we OK forwarding these to the full board? And Tom will
- ask more questions for Wonderlife. Yes. Very good. Well, then we can move on to appointment to the CAC.
- So that's all.
- Allison Sears, who's an employee of Rumpke Waste and Recycling, submitted a request through our website
- to be on the CAC, as you can see in the memo. That would bring the total number of members to six, with
- three being representatives from the industry, which is the max under state statute, 50%.
- Runky has a representative already. That would give Runky two representatives. Two from Runky, and what
- are the other two representing? The other one. The other one, sorry. It's Joe Sears from the public
- service. But we'd have two Sears, two members of the Sears family.
- Yes, I believe Allison has children with daughter-in-law. We need some female representation on that.
- I have one. I have a cousin who works at CBU and
- We were at a family function recently, and so now it all came up. And she, what can I be on? I say,
- well, sure. So I am waiting for her letter of interest that she has, except she intends to seek application,
- or to seek appointment to the CHC. Right. Well, that's great. Are we OK forwarding this? Allison Sears.
- to the floor. Then I think we are down to the catch all of all other items teams itself. I might have
- some items. Are they appropriate on your perspective? So I think it was last month.
- We were talking about the situation with the compact releases. Oh, great. And, you know, if we're looking
- at renewing with the current vendor or there was some question about was there a need under the statute
- to go out for bid because it was an equipment lease or, you know, did it fall as a service? But anyway,
- one of the things staff was asked to look at pricing out purchasing the compact.
- So we did get a quote from the MAC Corporation, which the MAC 400 four yard stationary compactor, which
- is everybody we've talked to, that's the unit we want, that's the comparable, the newer version comparable
- to what we had. So we got a quote with the unit itself, and then a list of the options, which Zoe and
- I went through,
- to the best we could to say, yep, we got this, we got this, we got this, we want this, which would be
- a block here to keep the hydraulic flow from increasing in the winter, which would be a big help. And
- we're looking at $29,775 per compactor. $29,000, what? $775 per compactor. And we have 13? 15. $446,625.
- You said 15?
- We have 15. And that does not include installation, delivery, any potential electric work that might
- need to be done. Does it have to come with some sort of service contract, or is that something that
- we would be able to? That would cost extra. I'm sure that's available. Is that something we would need,
- or do we have
- We don't have our own mechanics. We can't wiggle his nose and make it all better. The one thing that
- we didn't get as a part of the quote would be, I assume there's some sort of warranty with the things.
- one year or something, but we did not get that information. What's the lifespan in one of those? In
- going through all of this and talking with vendors that sell and lease these things, the industry standard
- on them is five to seven years.
- And but that's not necessarily a lifespan. You know, with the comeback that we're running right now,
- we're 20 years old. What? Yeah. 20 compared to five to seven. Well, that's the industry standard is
- five to seven is when the maintenance costs start to become, I guess, get to the point that you should
- consider replacing the equipment. That's not to say that some don't last 10 to 15 years or some don't
- only last two years.
- A lot of it depends on the environment there and what materials you're dealing with. I think Joey talked
- about some of that last time. But trash can have anything and everything in it that can impact the metal
- and cause corrosion and stuff like that. But we didn't get that number as requested. And yet the other
- thing that we don't have, obviously,
- Nobody's going to have 15 of these things sitting on the lock that they can deliver tomorrow. And we
- also don't have $460,000 that we're going to donate to that. Yeah. Snap your fingers. That's not what's
- available today. Bippity boppity boo. But we got that information before we do.
- And then I'm looking at the packet from our last meeting. What was the cost of the leases? So I was
- just trying to find. Well, what we're currently paying, because the leases are all over the place as
- far as when they started, one compact or two compactors. But I think that we're 300, 350 is the lowest.
- 475 or so is the highest per month. Yeah, I believe so. I want to say it's like 450 is the highest one
- that we're paying right now. But whether, you know, if we renew with the existing company, they're going
- to they want to update these things because their guys are down here too much working on.
- So it's going to go out. If we go out for bid, whoever bids on it is going to offer newer, better equipment
- than what we currently have. It's going to cost more. So let's even say that it was $1,000 per month.
- It's still $12,000 per year. For what? For one. Times 15.
- Is any of these leases offer, maybe even a little closely, do they offer a guarantee that your equipment
- isn't going to be over 10 years old? I mean, I would just hope that if I'm paying per month. No, because
- you're going to get an agreement in place that's not going to extend beyond what they think is
- the serviceable lifespan of that equipment. If they say in five years, it's going to need to be replaced
- or upgraded, they're not going to do a service agreement longer than five years. How are we in this
- position of 20-year-old things that release it? Because we turned into this agreement with a local vendor
- out of ND. I mean, they're Mac pieces of equipment,
- It was when we entered into these agreements with them, they were not a part of them. National corporation.
- What did they like stagger their placement? So like. We don't do all of them at once, but we. Yeah,
- if we purchased. I mean, even their legs. Well, either. Yeah, either way that's you're doing one or
- two at a time. I mean, because that's these things have to be built. What's the lead time on them? Do we know?
- I do not. I do know there's a few on hand, but say to have one built, I don't know what the lead time
- is, but ideally, you know, we would try to schedule it on days when we're shut down. So like, you know,
- if we can get one switched out on a Thursday when the sites are closed is how we would attempt to do
- this. So it would take us a little bit of time to switch them out. And the other aspect of that is that
- if we, if we buy or we, or we lease with a different vendor,
- You know, we also have to deal with terminating the existing leases that all have the same termination
- terms in them, but staggered dates. I mean, you got to do the 90, you know, the 90-day or 180-day notice.
- You know, but we got to do one now for the ones that expire in September, and then in a couple months,
- do another one for the ones that expire in November.
- You know, if we renew with the current vendor, some of that becomes a lot easier because they're going
- to be more amenable to working with us on entering into the new leases. And you know, they'll let us
- terminate an existing lease without notice if they have the unit ready and they're ready to replace
- it today. If we're purchasing our own or going with a competing vendor, then we have to
- schedule the installs and make sure we have notes of when we need to issue a termination of this. It's
- all doable. And I don't think any of that means that if there's an opportunity to get a better deal,
- that we shouldn't pursue that opportunity to get a better deal. And I would say we are, you know,
- I think regardless of who, if we're gonna lease, regardless of who we're leasing from, we're probably
- into five to $600 per month range per unit. Is that all? No, that's better than I thought.
- And the recollection I have from last time is there's like three that need to be
- replaced pretty quickly. We're currently having one breakdown every so often. We have one I have been
- told is somewhere in the neighborhood 30 to 50 years old from their mechanic and it's there's only two
- of them known in existence and we have one.
- So I just want to, there's a combination that can be done where over time we purchase one or two per
- year to get to that longer term. You know, so if we did, and I don't know what financially we're just
- sending money aside for a second, but if you did two per year, then you'd have like maybe a seven or
- eight year, you know,
- or even 10-year kind of replacement. If you're telling me that they might last that long, you could
- get into that sort of thing where you're replacing two per year forever. So every seven, eight years,
- everything's being updated. Right. Right. And then you're kind of budgeting it, plan for it, obviously
- costs change. But in the meantime, the ones that you still would have to be having
- them replay, you know, new ones put on lease until we fill it out, but fewer and fewer on lease.
- I don't know. I think there's probably an analysis that could be done, but not right here in my head.
- And I, you know, I think it's, um, so if we're saying,
- We need to know the cost of a maintenance agreement. Well, and that's part of it. I mean, with under
- under a lease, some maintenance is included, but not all, but not all me. I mean, yeah, I mean, they're
- obviously far operator gets mad and slams the button real hard for any exceptional, you know, but as
- far as coming down and inspecting it,
- you know, topping off the hydraulic things like that are going to be included. So the math I just did
- was $600 per unit times 15 units times 12 months is $108,000 per year times seven year lifespan gets
- us to $756,000 for the lease or lifespan of all of our contractors.
- Whereas if we purchase for 30K each, 15 units, $450,000, but that doesn't include maintenance. Right.
- So I just question from a little different perspective. Yeah. If we say 600 per month for a unit times
- 12 months times five years, that's $36,000, at least that unit per five years. And that would include
- a lot of the maintenance
- as opposed to spending $30,000 for that unit for that same five-year period. So you calculate $36,000
- for one unit for five years? Yeah. So can we get a vote for the maintenance cost, maintenance contract,
- I'm sure I can reach out to Mac and say, you know, if we send them what we have put together here, what
- would the maintenance be per year on it? And again, you know, that wouldn't cover the parts and all
- that, but we can get a general idea of what maintenance would be per hour, I'm sure. Which would yeah.
- Well, the technician's going to come down. It's going to cost you $75 an hour for that technician to
- come and do that. So that's not included in the maintenance agreement? Well, that's what would be quoted
- in the maintenance agreement. And then on top of that, you're going to, well, we need a new hydraulic
- hose. That's another $125. That doesn't even seem like a maintenance agreement. That doesn't seem like
- a maintenance agreement. That seems like it's calling the standards appliances and having them come out.
- You want a maintenance agreement that you can ask. I don't know if they're going to be part of that.
- I don't know. What kind of maintenance agreement we have now, I'd like to get a quote on that for if
- we purchased. I guess the only thing that might be different is if it locks us into a certain rate for
- a certain period of time. If it's no other benefit, but it holds the rate,
- the hourly rates steady for three years or whatever. Yeah. You understand what they're asking for?
- I think so. And I could do that and I could see, you know, like what the warranty says and what the
- extended warranty would be and what it would cover. Yes. We don't know that information right now. And
- if we lease, we don't really get the benefit of warranty, right? Cause that would see with them.
- One of the vendors I talked to has told us that they would do general maintenance like every three or
- four months, which we currently don't have. And they have somebody local that is here that could,
- you know, within an hour or two be working on the machines. So that was something else I would have
- to look at is how far, you know, out of Indy, what, you know, Mac, who they use to maintenance the machines,
- you know, how long would it take to get somebody here to work on them?
- Because I don't. Yeah, yeah. How urgent is this like? It's not a one break. So are we? Joey, are we
- saying that one breaks like once a month, once every two months?
- We have small issues probably once every six or eight weeks. You know, nothing major. The one that we're
- worried about is the really old one that, you know, I've been told is somewhere between 30 and 50 years.
- You know, I've tried to get them to give me a price to replace it. And, you know, they're like, well,
- you're under contract with this machine. I don't know, you know,
- A couple of years ago I was with this same compactor and it went down and it was down for four or five
- months because they had to rebuild rams and cylinders because they didn't have no parts for it. So that's
- where we're at is eventually they don't make parts for this machine no more. So everything's got to
- be rebuilt. It's like a bad deal to be paying to leave something that's so old. That's the $300 a month one. Yep.
- Can we go forward with getting rid of that lease, at least? Or should, that thing should be,
- should we? Yeah, should we? So that's, that's, that's a standalone lease with a different company. Wouldn't
- we have leased it to pay for it by now? Like, isn't there a leased loan program or something?
- You're right. I mean, yeah, because the department is using five years. But if we're keeping them for
- so much longer. Well, that should have been based on
- you know, that the vendors were talking to saying every five to seven years, they need to be updated.
- Well, every five to seven years, is this lease going to then automatically get us a brand new thing?
- Not at the same rate. I mean, we could build that into the lease, but I doubt anybody's going to agree
- to give us the newest, most updated equipment at the same rate. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I wouldn't.
- Necessarily. And with regard to the one, I mean, yeah, because it's under a different agreement with
- a different company, there's other options there. But if we're going to lease, I would prefer to get
- all 15 of them under one agreement. 15. Five sides, three per side.
- Well, so if we could get that information about maintenance agreement, we could maybe make a decision
- next month. I don't know. Do you feel strongly that we should do this? Are you leaning strongly,
- both of you, one way or the other, lease or own? I think I would prefer to lease.
- takes a little bit of the responsibility off us for service and maintenance. But if we buy something
- and there's a viable service agreement option out there, then that alleviates some of that need. What's
- the cost of that? And you've got to build that into this half-million-dollar figure we got right here.
- What did the legal counsel say about whether we have to put a request for proposals out there for the
- lease? It's been a few weeks. His response was asking him about making the argument that this is a service
- contract because maintenance is included.
- He said something to the effect that the district could make that argument. Would he back us? Well,
- yeah. He would make that argument on our behalf if it came to that. I think in last month's packet,
- I cited there was a separate part of the statute that was specific to equipment leases.
- that had much lower thresholds for when you have to go out for bed. If you're going to say that the
- service is secondary or auxiliary to the primary focus of this is the piece of equipment and you're
- subject to this statute, we don't have a choice but to go out for bed. Like I said last time, I think
- we should put it out for bed.
- Yeah, last time you said something better safe than sorry or whatever and yeah. And I, you know,
- I think that. Doing doing something.
- takes us down a path with a different vendor is going to present some logistical challenges because
- of the way that the leases are all staggered and stuff like that. But I mean, I think Joey and I have
- investigated enough at this point that I think there's options, other options out there that are worth
- considering. And we can take all that into account. I mean, our current vendor,
- can respond to the bid. Oh, and I would expect that they will if we did. And then we can compare everything,
- the ease of staying with the same members. And the way that we purposely word those things, that we
- are not stuck taking the bottom dollar. OK. Particularly since service would be included in this. So
- there are other factors that can be factored into.
- You know, we'll say lowest and most responsive bid, which doesn't necessarily mean it's the bottom dollar.
- Okay. What was that terminology? Responsive and? Lowest and most responsive. Some of that is dependent
- on how you word request.
- So we need to work toward that request carefully so we can consider multiple facets. Yeah, because you
- can get someone who prices it low, but it's not very responsive. Yeah, we go down and we have to wait
- two weeks to get a technician. Well, if they can't work with installing right when we need, you know,
- this lease ends, you know, that's that convenience factor. And that's the lead time acquired. Initially,
- that's going to be the biggest challenge is these things have to be billed and we have to provide so
- much notice to get out of the lease automatically renewed. What is the notice period for the current
- license for the majority? It's either 90 or 100 days. I forget which it is.
- There's a few things that we're interested in noticing our way out of, and they all have different notice
- periods. We can certainly grab a couple of the contracts. Does anybody have a hard stock coming up?
- This meeting is running longer than normal. I am supposed to be watching a webinar on local income tax
- changes. Pretty exciting stuff. The district doesn't get income tax, so that's not pertinent to your
- position. It is not. Continue, I will catch up.
- that I did want to, and I think I've told Thomas, to let you all know that I will be unable to come
- over to the next, I'll be able to attend the June board meeting remotely, but then the next Executive
- Committee and the next board meeting in July, I will not be able to attend.
- fun reason. So hopefully both of you can attend the next executive committee meeting. Which would be
- the 7th of July? I think it's June 30th. Yeah, June 30th.
- July 9th. Oh no, it is. Okay, I'm maybe coming back from Colorado at that time because I have to drop
- my kid off at Air Force Academy. In June? That's so soon. June 24th. Well, we can. Okay, all right.
- Did he stand up when Mr. Stark asked students? He did.
- Oh, the North graduation was Saturday. Yeah. I can't pull. I'm not connected to the internet right now.
- I can't pull up that. Oh, that's OK. But we can. Yeah, I feel kind of bad leaving this up in the air.
- Well, it is what it means. The units are working right now. And I mean, well, I missed my mention.
- I mean, it's a little nervous, but they're working right now. I mean, obviously the rep for the current
- vendor is pushing, but we, I mean, this is potentially a half a million dollar decision. We kind of
- hit it right. So. New diligence. So I think it's fine. And the worst case scenario is, we don't come
- to a decision
- soon enough to start initiating the opt-out notices for the current leases and we have to wait another
- year. Oh, can we get a month-to-month? I'm sorry. On something that old, we can't get a month-to-month
- lease. Not the way the lease agreements that were signed about 13 years ago. Can we do an opt-out of
- the current and say, hey, like on the ones that are coming up,
- If they'll agree to it. I would ask. Cause I'm for Marie that way. Yeah, I mean, it's the same ancient
- equipment. So yeah, I mean, I can, I can, I can ask the rep what are, you know, what our options are
- to alleviate some of the logistics. But I don't know that that's the only, it only alleviates the logistics.
- that are involved with going to a different vendor because they'll alleviate them all for themselves.
- Yeah, that's true. Can we get a list of the compactors and how old they are and when they're there at
- least dates around. That's a good idea. I might actually have that somewhere. OK, so.
- We need to go check. I honestly put things on my calendar incorrectly. I just moved it to the 30th.
- Well, do we need to look to reschedule that executive committee meeting? We need people to attend in
- person. Correct? Good. I can dial in. We need two in the room. Yeah. Yeah. I can be in the room, but
- that's not two people.
- I need myself an eye. Can't you throw your voice? We can confuse the owl and it'll look like there's
- two. I forgot to tell you that once a meeting has lasted longer than it's supposed to and I might become
- very, very... We're already running long enough. We can reschedule that via email. As we need to. Late
- next week when I get back in town. And like I said, I will
- check my email periodically on vacation, but I would really rather not have a meeting to go to at a
- certain time. Anything else to bring up in the category of all other items?
- I don't know if Teresa's still with us or did we lose her? I think she just left. OK, that's all right.
- I mentioned earlier that the Arkwood bill that's normally would be paid under the resolution. That's
- our HHW vendor.
- Normally, there's a service agreement in place that would be in the resolution. However, the current
- bill is $91,000. Do what now? Yeah. That covers how many months of collected stuff? Joey? That's about
- three months, and it's because of all the foaming cylinders. The foaming cylinders was over half the
- bill. Oh my, who brought those in? We actually got
- 42 of them, I believe, was the number. And a lot of them was dropped off at our sites, you know, illegally
- dumped. But we still have to do the right thing with them. We had a couple brought in the hazmat over
- the time. OK. So at any rate, so that amount under our internal controls, Teresa and I can't do that.
- It takes a board member.
- but our quote is also a vendor we pay via ACH. So what Teresa and I discussed is we're gonna hold that
- out so that it is a part of the claims to be approved at the board meeting. So that way, and since we're
- not writing a check, but then that way we will have the board vote approving it and then Teresa and
- I will have to
- turn around the day after and work with the bank to get an exception on the limits that are placed on
- our ACH transactions. We'll do a one-time exemption for us and we'll process that after board meeting.
- I told you it'd be eye-opening. Normally, if we pay by check, you would need a signature. One of the
- officers would have to sign. Yeah. What is the internal control for
- um, ACH. This was not a foreseen circumstance. Yeah. So we need to, that's coming up too. With that
- in our internal controls mechanism. But I think, I think given where we sit right now, that if it's,
- if it's treated just, I guess, in essence, we're treating it as a vendor who's not on the vendor list.
- So that way it gets presented to the board at the board meeting to be approved at the board meeting.
- And that majority vote approval at the board meeting, we're accepting as authorization for Theresa and
- I to transact that amount. We may even make mention of that at the board meeting and ask that part of
- the vote to approve be to authorize.
- to control an executive director to execute that ACH transaction in that amount. To have that be a separate?
- Wait, to put that in the motion that we usually do for verbal claims? Right. Okay. You could write that
- out, make sure we get the motion right. Well, yeah, we will single that particular payment out
- when we present the claims for approval and explain why it's being singled out and what authority we
- need upon the approval to get it executed. Wow. It's expensive to clean up messes. Now you understand
- where we brought the fee resolution to.
- Yes, I'm clear. And yeah, and that's just like said, it's, you know, it's become a do it yourself thing.
- And I get it. And I think even if you're paying us $500 to get rid of it, there's still saving money
- versus hiring the contract or if that's the route you want to go.
- the remote for next week's meeting. Can one of you meet the meeting? It's chairing a meeting remotely
- is difficult. Will you be there? That's why sure. Oh, this is the. The June board meeting on the next
- week. Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
- I will be. Secretary. All right, anything else for the good of the order? You want to. Do I want to
- what? Oh, that's right. So. After all these.
- Interviews as was evidenced by the many minutes of executive sessions. We have offered the controllers
- position. Since that was that was delegated to me as board here to do so, I did offer that position.
- Today, and I believe the official letter still needs to go out verbally accepted, but we haven't got
- the letter. That's wonderful so.
- That person should be able to start soon. I'll get that to the board confirmation vote next week. Yes.
- Yeah. And everything should be barring any unforeseen circumstances in place by the board meeting. Awesome.
- Yep. Very good. Thank you for taking that responsibility. Oh, yes, 100%. And thank you.
- Thank you both for your help. Well, I think that is it for us today. So we are adjourned.