McMinnville officials will discuss beginning a plastic recycling program, among other measures before Streets and Sanitation Committee members Tuesday night.
The collection effort here will be in conjunction with a recycling plant in Manchester operated in Vicam and managed by Viam Manufacturing. The company uses fiber technology by the Japanese company Oyama Chemical that produces PET stable carpet fiber from clear recycled PET bottles.
Officials have long discussed beginning a recycling program. However, the effort would have to be through the Sanitation Division of McMinnville Public Works, a self-funded garbage collection service that pays expenses through monthly user fees.
“A recycling program is something the city has considered for some time,” said Public Works director Bill Brock. “The program must pay for itself, which is usually a problem. The price paid for recyclable materials is usually not enough to cover expenses.”
Also on the committee’s agenda is an update on street light removal/ re-installation, an update on lighting for the Beersheba Street Bridge and naming the bridge for Jeremy Brown, a sign situation at Ernest Crouch Memorial Bridge, and discussing on-street parking throughout the city.
Officials are currently considering returning the street lights that were removed by the prior board. Several hundred street lights were eliminated as a cost-saving measure to reduce the amount paid in electricity costs and use some of that money for street paving.
Street Aid, a state-fund budget, is used to fund street paving, installation of street lights, upkeep of street lights, electricity, street signs, etc. In the 2008-09 budget, approximately $320,000 of a $400,000 budget went to pay electricity. The cost was reduced to $200,000 in the 2012-13 budget.
Officials began considering naming the bridge on Beersheba Street for Spc. Jeremy Brown back in 2011. Brown was killed in Afghanistan in May 2010. The process to name the bridge requires state approval, which the city is attempting to obtain.
The sign that designates Ernest Crouch Memorial Bridge as just that is missing.
“I was told that during construction of the new bridge the grandson of Ernest Crouch asked for the sign and he was given it,” said Brock. “No one is taking responsibility for giving the sign away, but I don’t believe they had the right to do it. Now, the state has to get a new sign.”
The bridge was replaced in 2012 by TDOT with contractor Highways Inc.
The Streets and Sanitation Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. on the third floor of city hall.