The Bethany City Council will ask bidders on the city’s waste contract to include an option for curbside recycling for residents of the community.
Dan Buckley, a representative of the city’s current waste contractor Advanced Disposal, appeared at Monday night’s council meeting to prepare to submit a bid for the next five-year contract for trash pickup in Bethany.
Buckley asked whether the city wanted his company to add recycling to the contract. Advanced Disposal provides bins at its transfer station on Roleke Drive where residents are invited to bring their recycling material such as cardboard, paper, plastic bottles, aluminum cans and tin cans. Advanced offers the collection of recycling at the curbside in some of the communities it serves.
“About 20 percent of the community does recycling in the correct way,” Buckley said. He said Advanced would have no problem adding a second recycling truck on a weekly or every other week basis.
Advanced Disposal hauls the recycling material to the Hope Haven sheltered workshop in Chillicothe where the products are sorted for sale to processors.
Advanced Disposal’s contract runs out on Oct. 31. The city plans to call for bids from potential contractors with the inclusion of recycling. Buckley said he plans to come back with a bid for the renewal of the contract by September.
In other business, Mayor Patrick Miller and the council members heard complaints from downtown businesses about the city’s intention to sell the tourist information booth, located in the parking lot of Dairy Queen.
“We weren’t aware that it belonged to the city,” said Cathy Smith, who has ann accounting service on the Square.
The city established the information booth in cooperation with the Bethany Chamber of Commerce using proceeds from the sale of a train caboose that once had been used as a tourist stop.
Merchants attending the meeting said they look upon the booth as a link to direct travellers from the interstate to downtown Bethany but there had been no follow through on their request to have a sign erected there to point traffic to the business district.
“It is a shame that neither entity wanted to take care of it,” Smith said.
Eastward Alderman Todd Williams said he believes that the city should work with the merchants on establishing better signage to draw shoppers to the downtown area.
The council, on another issue, asked for a review of a request by the owners of the old I.O.O.F. building on South 12th Street to open a dance hall and music venue in the building, adjoining the 12th Street Apartments.
Gary and Jessie Elder, who recently purchased the building from the Odd Follows, plan to hold regular weekend events in the hall. City Hall had denied a permit for the dance hall because of limited parking at the building site and concerns about disturbing neighboring residents.
City Administrator Jan Hagler said there were concerns about safety and parking.
“There are some issues that must be addressed such as parking and building exits that should be addressed,” Hagler said.
Council members said they wanted to take a look at the issue. “We should try to accommodate people who want to bring entertainment to town as long as it is safe,” said Alderman Todd Williams.
Council votes to close alley
The council, after a lengthy period of study, voted to vacate an alley at 17th Terrace and Hubbard in South Bethany at the request of Michelle Hoskins. The decision will allow Hoskins to build a fence at that location. City officials received assurances that the electric department would have access to a light pole at that location.
Steve Guthrie, regional manager for PeopleService and water and sewer superintendent George Hulet, reported that a power outage had caused flooding at a wet well at the wastewater treatment plant, damaging equipment. The plant has resorted to temporary pumping to avoid sending untreated waste into Big Creek. The cost of the temporary pumping will be about $2,500 a week until the problem is fixed, Guthrie estimated.
The city approved Guthrie and Hulet’s recommendation for a permanent solution at a cost of $5,500 to $6,000.
“We want to move all of the electronics from the wet well,” Guthrie said.
The council also approved a request by Guthrie to order a new computer and Windows software update at a cost of $7,600 for the water treatment plant. The computer upgrade had already been included in the city’s budget for the current year.