Recycling closer for Fort Smith

Board votes to hire 2 firms to get services back on track

NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK  Fort Smith City Building City Hall Fort Smith downtown offices.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Fort Smith City Building City Hall Fort Smith downtown offices.

FORT SMITH -- City directors voted Tuesday to hire two firms in a move to restore full recycling services to the city for the first time in nearly three years.

The city Board of Directors approved a two-year agreement with two Missouri companies, 3rd Rock Recycling of Webb City, Mo., and Pen Sales of Kansas City, Mo., to provide recycling services. The city has the option to extend the contract for a third year.

The vote was 4-1, with City Director George Catsavis voting against the resolution. Two directors, Kevin Settle and Andre Good, were absent.

City directors said they hope the agreement will lead eventually to the city handling its own recycling and reaping the financial benefits.

Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said in a memorandum to directors after the agreement is signed, Fort Smith, 3rd Rock and Pen Sales will begin to work on acquiring a single-stream sorting machine for the recycling operation. If the machine is purchased and the material is sorted locally, Dingman wrote, the city wouldn't pay for 3rd Rock to take the recyclables but 3rd Rock and Pen Sales would pay the city $10 a ton for the material.

Securing and finding the sorting machine would take six to 12 months, Dingman said in the memo.

Tuesday's vote was the first time since September 2014 the city had a recycling contract. Since September 2014, Green Source Recycling of Clarksville accepted a part of the city's recycling but refused to take any material as of June 2016. Since then, all recycling material went into the city landfill.

City sanitation customers who have been separating their recyclable material and rolling the containers to the curb each week didn't learn until last month their recycling efforts were wasted.

Dingman said 3rd Rock and Pen Sales have worked together in other locations. Under the agreement, 3rd Rock will gather, bale and transport Fort Smith's recyclables to Pen Sales, which will market the material.

According to the proposed agreement, 3rd Rock and Pen Sales will have 30 days from the execution of the agreement to acquire a location and begin to accept the city's recycling.

Mike Birchmeier with 3rd Rock said he could find a location in or around Fort Smith as early as today to begin accepting recycling from the city.

Mike Wilson with Marck Industries Inc. of Cassville, Mo., asked directors Tuesday to consider his company's proposal submitted earlier this year to provide recycling services for the city. He said he could provide it cheaper than 3rd Rock/Pen Sales and would be willing to move his recycling operation out of downtown.

City directors were critical of Marck's proposal last month because it was downtown and would hamper efforts to revitalize the downtown area.

Dingman wrote in his memorandum the cost of delivering the city's single-stream [unsorted] recyclable material to a 3rd Rock/Pen Sales recycling center in or near Fort Smith is estimated to cost about $288,000 a year.

Having 3rd Rock's facility in or near the city would make it less expensive for the city's sanitation trucks to deliver the recyclables to 3rd Rock than driving them to Clarksville or elsewhere.

Third Rock also agreed in the contract to buy the city's sorted office paper and old cardboard containers at the current market price less a $40 handling fee. Dingman's memo said the city would net about $120,000 a year.

From both operations, Dingman wrote, the city's net expense is estimated to be about $168,000 a year.

NW News on 06/21/2017

Upcoming Events