10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

Kanawha waste board facing money problems

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority is trying to come up with every little bit of money to avoid shutting down the entire recycling program.

“We’re broke,” said board member David Armstrong during a Tuesday morning meeting.

Currently, the agency is down nearly $36,000 over halfway into the 2015 fiscal year.

James Young, the executive director, said the majority of the loss was caused by transportation expenses. Waste Management has been hauling loads of their items from Slack Street to WV Cashin in Nitro to process them because the SWA currently doesn’t have a truck to do the job. The authority has lost nearly $6,000 per month because of it.

“We’re seeing very little revenue,” Young said. “So the money was bound to run up.”

“We’re not on a life line. We are paying our bills. We could probably make it through a majority of February, but we kind of want to sound the alarm a little bit sooner,” he added.

The authority is expecting a truck by March to save on expenses, but Young said even that won’t completely fix the problem.

“If we get the truck, we can decrease expenses by about $2,000 a month which definitely helps. It’s not the final answer really that’s going to save things, but it puts us in a lot better situation,” he said.

Plans for a new recycling center have been put on hold for the time being because Young said they’re looking at purchasing an existing facility instead of building from the ground up. He said they would try to buy their own storage containers to process items at Slack Street, but since they have their eyes on this other facility, they don’t want to invest in the current property.

“It just provides the opportunity to get up pretty much right away and not have to go through a loan process, not have to wait for equipment to be manufactured,” Young said of the existing building in Charleston. “We could move in, get set up and pretty much start almost immediately.”

Young told MetroNews they want to avoid any possible shutdown for many reasons, but one being that many people depend on them.

“Most of the cities have curb side service, but for the rest of the county, for Lincoln County, for Clay, Boone, people come from all over to use this facility and we’re very mindful of that,” he said. “We’re trying to provide residents with an option knowing that we’re going to lose money, so they have it as long as possible because if they can’t come here, they got to go to Nitro or they got to go to Beckley.”

The future of the authority will soon be discussed with state and county officials. Young said they currently have a $630,000 sub grant with the state. He said they’ve already used some of that for the new truck. Instead of using the rest of that money for equipment for the new facility, he said they want to put it toward the existing building and just use the equipment they already have.

Also, the authority plans to seek assistance from the Kanawha County Commission at its next meeting. That meeting is scheduled for next Thursday, Jan. 28.





More News

News
MetroNews This Morning 3-29-24
Summary of West Virginia news, sports, and weather for Friday, March 29, 2024
March 29, 2024 - 6:24 am
News
Dunlow Volunteer Fire Department closes
The Dunlow VFD did not have a valid workers compensation insurance policy.
March 29, 2024 - 1:23 am
News
As Yeager Airport's Wildlife Patrol Dog turns 7, a new dog comes in to learn from him
The new Border Collie is getting acclimated and receiving training for his soon-to-be role.
March 28, 2024 - 6:30 pm
News
PEIA examines financial effects of new law meant to ensure local pharmacies get fair reimbursements
Gov. Jim Justice signed Senate Bill 453 into law this week.
March 28, 2024 - 4:11 pm