A volunteer recycling effort may be in a shop building owned by Allen County just north of the county’s critical response center in the 400 block of North State Street.
Kris Weide and others from Allen County Together leadership group told commissioners Tuesday morning they thought the building, with room to park semi-trailers indoors, would be ideal.
The proposed recycling will be ACT’s featured project and will depend on volunteers beyond its organization. Mentioned were Allen County Community College students whose scholarships include commitment to public service, high school students and Allen County Jail inmates, as well as “people from the community,” Weide said.
VMI Recyclers, Kansas City, promised a stable market for paper, cardboard and plastic.
Weide mentioned that several area counties have recycling programs.
They have financial motivation, Bill King, director of Public Works, observed.
“They have to pay us (or someone else) to take their trash while Allen County residents may deposit theirs free at our landfill.”
Financial issues have been a bane for recycling, the ACT group admitted, but VMI “said it would protect us” in the market.
Commissioner Dick Works suggested the group develop a specific budget and inquire about grant money available from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which frequently encourages recycling as a means of extending the lives of landfills.
ACT hopes to have some form of recycling in place by late this year. Its members said they would be careful not to infringe on the monthly paper drives sponsored by the Iola Rotary Club and would specialize in paper other than newsprint and magazines, as well as cardboard and several grades of plastic.
Allen County likely will transport materials to VMI.
KING SAID work to replace the asphalt apron at Allen County Airport with concrete has begun. The concrete apron will support larger aircraft, particularly after taking on full loads of fuel. A Federal Aviation Administration grant will pay 95 percent of the $350,000 project.
“We’re getting a lot of commercial traffic at the airport,” King said, adding fuel sales were approaching 100,000 gallons a year, 20 times as much as just a few years ago.
He also told commissioners that pouring of the concrete deck began Tuesday for a new bridge over an old oxbow channel of the Neosho River on old U.S. 169 north of the Allen-Neosho counties line. He said the road should reopen about Dec. 1.
