Crawford County should have a local option to dispose of hazardous chemical and old electronics found around the home by mid-summer.
That was the word Friday when Jim Triplett, chairman of the board of Southeast Kansas Recycling and chair of the county's Solid Waste Advisory Committee, updated the county Board of Commissioners on hazardous waste grants from the state.
Triplett and SEK Recycling received notification of the award of a grant from the Governor's Solid Waste Grant Advisory Committee and Kansas Department of Health and Environment, totaling $214, 938 to establish a household hazardous waste and electronic waste (e-waste) recycling center in Pittsburg.
The center would serve an eight-county region in southeastern Kansas that includes Allen, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Labette, Neosho, Wilson and Woodson counties.
“We're hoping to be on line with both of these projects by July,” Triplett said. “We're already getting calls” asking where to take old computers and the like.
“We're making good progress,” he said. “The award letters mean we're moving down the tracks. We've been ready to go for a long time.”
To go along with the grant funding to buy equipment and real estate for the recycling center, the contract includes the possibility for reimbursements of as much as $150,000 per year for two years for handling and operation costs associated with the e-waste pilot program, according to a letter from KDHE Secretary Roderick L. Bremby.
“This could end up being an almost $500,000 grant,” Triplett said.
The SEK Solid Waste Operating Authority (SWOA) was the initial recipient of the grant. The initial request had been for $234,894, which included the cost of administering the grant. The final total received was reduced because SWOA could not, as grant administrator, pay itself for administrative services.
A decision was made to transfer the total grant to SEK Recycling, which would then contract with SWOA to perform the administrative duties, Triplett said.
The disposal of unwanted personal electronics — including everything from computers and monitors to stereos and cell phones — has become a growing problem in recent years. Household hazardous waste includes paints, solvents, pesticides and other chemical which could contaminate the soil or water if disposed of incorrectly. Getting rid of e-waste and household hazardous wastes requires special handling beyond just dumping them in a landfill.
In the grant application, SEK Recycling proposed a facility where e-waste would be collected, processed and stored at its existing location along Joplin Street in Pittsburg. Household hazardous waste would also be handled in a separate building at the Pittsburg location.
The hazardous waste would be picked up once a month from satellite locations around the region and transported to Pittsburg, Triplett said. From there, anything that could be recycled and reused would be removed. The remaining materials would be disposed of safely.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Accepted a bid from Pittsburg Ford for three new patrol cars for the Crawford County Sheriff's Office for a total of $68,403. Sheriff Sandy Horton said he'd also contacted Molle Automotive in Pittsburg, but the company declined to submit a bid.
The department tries to purchase three news vehicles each year for its fleet, Horton said. Last year, the department bought three trucks. The last time the department purchased patrol cars, they cost about $1,500 per car less than the current bids.
• Approved a lease-purchase agreement between the board and Girard National Bank for Crawford County Fire District 4 in the amount of $16,577.33 to buy a 1984 Pierce-Arrow pumper fire truck for the department.
• Approved the monthly Clerk's Report detailing spending, salary and payments from the various county departments for April.