NELSONVILLE, Ohio — The Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District is making progress toward forming a council of governments that would provide regional waste management services — and absorb Athens-Hocking Recycling Centers, Inc.
At a special meeting Monday morning, the district board passed a resolution to become a charter member of the prospective Southeast Ohio Area Resources Council of Governments. The COG now must find its second charter member.
AHSWD District Director Jane Forrest Redfern and Athens County Board of Commissioners President Lenny Eliason were appointed to represent the district in working out details such as solidifying bylaws and agreements, and finding member governments.
“We wanted to take the step forward to establish that we are interested in moving forward,” Forrest Redfern said. “I think over the next few weeks, communities across the district will be contacting us and hopefully we can get some discussions going. … It’s an evolution of the solid waste for our region.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Forrest Redfern said that it’s too early to tell who the COG’s second charter member will be. She believes that the COG is the most sustainable choice for the AHSWD because it pools resources while maintaining current waste district infrastructure and relationships. For example, the COG could procure equipment — that one community could not afford on its own — that could be shared amongst its members.
Forrest Redfern stressed that AHRC has helped to build waste management infrastructure that should not collapse as the nonprofit faces a catastrophic blow to operations following its loss of business from the city of Athens — 40% of its annual revenue. Local entities — including Athens and Hocking counties, the Athens City-County Health Department and more — have worked for four decades, she said, to establish what the district has now.
“That’s an asset that we can’t let go to rest,” Forrest Redfern said. “We need to build on that foundation and move and evolve our solid waste management to a level that we can be most efficient and effective. … We will be at other people’s whims moving forward, perhaps, if we don’t form a COG.”
Athens City Council learns more
AHRC has proposed the council of governments as a way to absorb its shrinking operations and assets. Staffing numbers are the same as of Jan. 10, as the Independent reported in December 2023: 43 workers, 35 of whom belong to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Time is of the essence: The longer it takes to form the council, the fewer resources AHRC will have left, AHRC Executive Director Crissa Cummings told Athens City Council Monday night.
As a body of governments, the council of governments cannot take on debt — meaning that AHRC must be in good financial standing for its assets to be absorbed. AHRC lost a significant portion of its revenue when the city of Athens chose Rumpke for waste hauling and has begun to shrink its operations.
“The organization is currently solvent and would be able to support the transition. But as time goes on, and the recycling center spends its cash reserves to stay afloat, the need to start cutting operations and go through those cash reserves is going to leave the COG with a more challenging financial start,” Cummings said. “And so that is why making a decision sooner rather than later would be really useful.”
At-large council member Beth Clodfelter asked Cummings if there was any way for AHRC to avoid more layoffs.
“We’ve already done a round of layoffs, because, obviously, the city of Athens used six, seven, eight employees and three trucks for service, so we’ve already — either through attrition because people knew they’re going to be laid off or through layoffs — already reduced operations,” Cummings said. “It is not enough to keep us in the black past May.”
AHRC has begun working to dispose of its assets. Cummings said AHRC hoped to “hang on to some of those employees and those two trucks because they are what would allow us to pick up the city of Athens … but once those are gone, it would definitely require a lot more planning between the COG and the city of Athens if, when that transition could happen.”
Cummings affirmed that the COG “would allow for municipalities and the solid waste district to come together and offer a menu of services to their residents at cost for those services.” Each community could decide its role and what it receives from the COG — whether it contracts for both trash and recycling, or if it simply sits on the COG as a member.
Several costs are raised or reduced when operations are handled by a governmental entity, Cummings said; but according to her financial forecasts, “The COG would allow for significant cost savings compared to the Athens-Hocking recycling bid to the city of Athens.”
Solveig Spjeldnes, 1st Ward, asked Cummings if the operating costs of the COG would vary depending on how many communities join and if the minimum of two would be enough. Cummings replied that the COG’s revenue would depend on the number of clients, not the number of government members.
“The way that it was envisioned by [AHRC] — because we’re planning on giving up all of our employees, assets and operations to the COG — is, all of our current contracts would transfer to the COG,” Cummings said. “Regardless of whether they were founding members or members of the COG, [there’d] still be services to [Ohio University], Nelsonville and the solid waste district.”
Additionally, the COG would inherit all of AHRC’s individual customers in Athens and Hocking counties. “You would still have that base of operations,” Cummings said.
The current draft bylaws state that the two initial founding members would be the COG’s first voting members, “and they would be able to decide whether to admit other members or not, as time goes on,” Cummings said.
The COG becomes operational 30 days after filing with the state. If Athens joins the COG, it would need to give Rumpke a 60-day notice to terminate their agreement, Cummings said. Cummings said the cities of Nelsonville and Logan, as well as the village of Amesville, have been involved in conversations regarding the developing COG.
Up next: Nelsonville
Nelsonville’s trash hauling contract with AHRC ends March 1, 2024, with the option of a 60- to 90-day extension.
Nelsonville City Manager Tom Cangemi attended the AHSWD special meeting Monday morning. At the Nelsonville City Council meeting Monday night, he described the COG proposal as “very interesting.”
“You know there’s issues going on around that whole debacle,” Cangemi said. He said he would begin discussions with the council regarding the COG soon.
“There’s been a lot of different factors that have been introduced into this bid process, OK, that we have to be careful with — because once this bid process starts, we have to abide by the bid process,” Cangemi said.
Nelsonville City Council on Monday night heard the first reading of an ordinance authorizing the city manager to begin the bidding process and establish a franchise for those services.
The bidding process may begin after second reading and adoption of the ordinance on Jan. 22.
Nelsonville City Councilman Gregg Clement voiced concern over the timeline for the city’s process. Pointing to Athens’ nearly year-long process for awarding its trash bid — and subsequent public organizing for AHRC — Clement said, “Just word of caution, as we know our neighbors down the road have had a lot of issues with theirs.”
