City back in recycling business

Published 11:47 pm Monday, December 19, 2005

The City of Cullman is officially back in the recycling business.

The council Monday night approved a bid of $99,596.46 for a new recycling/refuse truck for the city’s sanitation department. The bid, which was the only one received, was submitted by Sansom Equipment Co., Inc., of Birmingham.

The council’s meeting Monday night was a week earlier than normal due to the Christmas holiday. The council will resume it’s regular second and fourth Monday night meeting schedule in January.

The purchase of the truck means the city’s recycling service will soon be up and running again after a four-month hiatus.

The city’s sanitation department halted recycling pickups in August when it’s lone collection truck experienced a major breakdown.

“I’m tickled to death to have the bids in and I’m ready to get back into the recycling business,” said Councilman Ernest Hauk, who also chair’s the council’s sanitation committee. “I’ve received a lot of comments the past several months from folks who obviously feel that recycling is important and I agree with them.”

Hauk said he hates that it has taken four months to bid a new truck.

“The wheels of government sometimes turn slowly, but we’re squared away now and we’re ready to start picking up recyclables again,” Hauk said.

City officials weren’t too upset over receiving just the one bid since they had anticipated paying in the neighborhood of $105,000 to replace their old recycling truck.

The mayor said made the statement last week that the cost of the truck would be “money well spent.”

“The city council and I feel strongly about the environmental benefits of recycling. Of course, anything we can recycle means it’s that much that won’t be dumped into our landfill and the longer we can extend the life of our landfill the better for everyone,” Green said.

The city of Cullman began its recycling program in 1996 as a community service. The program is not, nor has it ever been a money-making proposition for the city.

According to Delwin Kilgo, sanitation department superintendent, a separate truck and driver are needed to pick up recyclable items, which include aluminum cans and plastic bottles and other containers, such as milk jugs, etc.

Recyclable items are then unloaded into another truck and transported to the BFI Recycling Center in Huntsville. The city transports around five tons of recyclables to Huntsville each week at a cost of $20 a ton.

There is no charge for a city resident to participate in the recycling program.

Kilgo said the recycling program is costing the city around $70,000 a year when you take into consideration having to have a driver pick it up and a driver to transport it to Huntsville, paying the recycling center to take it and the gasoline costs and other expenses involved aside from the cost of a new truck.

“It has been a popular program, but it has strictly been a public service,” Kilgo said.

In other action Monday, the city council:

Authorized the mayor to apply for a Department of Justice two year grant on behalf of the Cullman Child Advocacy Center. The $150,000 grant comes with a 25 percent match, which will be funded by the advocacy center, according to Susan Martin, director. There is no financial obligation by the city. Councilman Ernest Hauk abstained from the vote.

Editors note: See Wednesday’s edition of The Times for other action taken by the Cullman city council at Monday night’s meeting.

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