1/23/08 - Recyclables pile up over holidays

County looks to expand hours or add staff to deal with backlog

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

County officials are hoping to add a few extra hands at the Cortland County Recycling Center off Pendleton Street to eliminate a glut of recyclables left over from the holiday season.

The county Legislature will likely approve an increase in personnel at the center at its meeting Thursday.

Large piles of recyclables tower over the workers in the Recycling Center.

County Highway Superintendent Don Chambers said he was concerned about the possibility of an accident, similar to the one in March 2006 that damaged the overhead door area not even a year after it had opened.

“It cuts down on the maneuverability of the vehicles and makes for tighter quarters, so I was concerned about personnel’s safety, also,” Chambers said Tuesday. “No problems, we just have a backlog of material that needs to be sorted and bailed to be sold.”

Chambers said that the holidays also ate into the amount of hours the staff was working.

Two full-time county employees staff the center, Chambers said. A contract with the J.M. Murray Center provides eight recyclable sorters, working four hours a day, five days a week.

Chambers said the contract stands at $125,000, and he is asking the Legislature to increase it by $10,000.

Whether this amounts to an increase in the number of workers or an increase in their hours still has to be worked out with the J.M. Murray Center.

Last year, a county employee left the Recycling Center and the J.M. Murray Center added an additional worker to make up the difference, Chambers said.

Last September, the crews had gotten behind on sorting and Chambers said additional hours were added at that time.

County Administrator Scott Schrader said that if a contract increase is approved Thursday, the increased staffing could likely be implemented by Monday.

Chambers and Schrader said it would be a matter of only a couple of weeks before the sorters were caught up.

I will be voting for this measure.