NELSONVILLE, Ohio – The Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District will soon hold public hearings to gather feedback on a proposed parcel fee to underwrite its operations.
As part of its next 15-year management plan, the district is seeking the purchase of the recycling and composting infrastructure belonging to Athens-Hocking Recycling Centers, Inc., at 5991 Industrial Drive, Athens.
As part of its next 15-year management plan, the solid waste management district wants to implement a $24 annual fee on each improved parcel in Athens and Hocking counties. An improved parcel has at least one permanent, portable, or temporary buildings on it, according to an AHSWD fact sheet. Per state law, the district may collect a parcel fee if it operates a “collection system.”
Improved parcels are properties with buildings or other improvements; undeveloped land would be exempt from the fee. The AHSWD Policy Committee approved the parcel fee as part of the district’s 2025–2040 planning at a meeting earlier this month.
“The Solid Waste District will buy the recycling center, compost and land from AHRC,” AHSWD Director Jane Forrest Redfern said in an email. “This way, we get to have a center for years to come.”
The newly formed Southeast Ohio Recycling Terminal Council of Governments that was formed to salvage AHRC’s business and infrastructure plans to rent the property from AHSWD. The COG’s only members to date are the solid waste district and the village of Amesville.
“The plan is to lease the building and operations to the newly formed COG on an annual basis,” Forrest Redfern said. “We do not want infrastructure, which the district and AHRC built together, to [go] to the highest bidder.”
The district could begin collecting the parcel fee as early as Jan. 1, 2025, if it is approved by the Athens and Hocking counties commissioners.
According to a timeline provided by the AHSWD, the solid waste district aims to obtain the title to the property and send a parcel fee resolution to the county auditor around Aug 1.
Next, the county auditor would send the parcel fee to the state auditor by Sept. 1, with parcel fee assessment to occur in January 2025 and first payments due in February 2025.
“Our office simply adds the assessment to the bill,” said Athens County Auditor Jill Davidson in an email. “Then, the county treasurer collects the assessment with the real property taxes. When the taxes are collected, our office would disperse the amount collected to the COG.”
According to a public notice distributed by AHSWD, the parcel fee will “provide revenue to maintain the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center and the Sutton Road Recycling Center and to pay to implement the Solid Waste District Management Plan to provide access and programs for proper solid waste disposal, recycling and diverting hard to recycle materials, recycling days and proper disposal of household hazardous waste.”
The commissioners are scheduled to vote on the parcel fee the week of July 15, according to a timeline provided by Forrest Redfern.
For Athens County Commissioner Chris Chmiel, the parcel fee is the most “straightforward” way for the district to receive funding — as opposed to tiered fees for waste disposal, for example.
The Hocking County commissioners have not responded to the Independent’s request for comment emailed earlier this week.
The district will hold three public meetings with the Athens County Board of County Commissioners and the Hocking County Board of Commissioners.
The meetings will be:
- Tuesday, June 25, at 6 p.m. at the Athens Community Center, 701 E. State St., Athens.
- Tuesday, July 2, at 6 p.m. at the Nelsonville Public Library, 95 W. Washington St., Nelsonville.
- Thursday, July 11, at 6 p.m. at the Hocking County Fairgrounds, youth building, 100 N. Homer Avenue, Logan.
Background: Solid waste districts
In Ohio, solid management waste districts prepare and implement solid waste management plans and set goals to meet the state’s environmental regulations. Solid waste management districts are “responsible for the safe and sanitary management of all solid waste generated” within their bounds, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The solid waste management plan is developed by the district’s policy committee, according to the Ohio EPA. Preparing the plan is complex and lengthy — often taking more than a year — and must encompass at least the next decade.
The district’s latest plan covers the years 2018–2032. The plan must be updated and prepared every five years.
AHSWD’s final district management plan is due Feb. 20, 2025, Forrest Redfern said in an email. It must be approved by 60% of 41 jurisdictions in Athens and Hocking counties, including villages and townships. Athens and Hocking counties, as well as Athens and Logan, however, hold a “veto”-like power over the plan, Forrest Redfern said.
The district currently provides 22 drop-off sites, 11 in each county. Per state requirements, 80% of the counties’ populations must have close access to recycling — and the district’s overall goal is to recycle at least 25% of materials generated from commercial and residential waste.
Additionally, “We are required by law to oversee to ensure we have at least 15 years of landfill space,” Forrest Redfern said in an email.
The next AHSWD regular board meeting is at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 16, at the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, 35 Public Square, Nelsonville.
Correction: An initial version of this article incorrectly stated that the parcel fee will be $2 per improved parcel per month; rather, it will be evaluated annually at $24 per improved parcel.
