Susquehanna County Recycling Center director Jennifer Hibbard provided an overview of the Ellsworth Drive, Bridgewater Twp. facility at the Wednesday, Nov. 9, meeting of the county commissioners, ahead of America Recycles Day, Tuesday, Nov. 15.
Hibbard noted that the county operates a 24/7 public drop-off area for cans, bottles, paper and cardboard as well as expediated drop-off for commercial businesses during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Scrap metal is also accepted, also during business hours. A hauler brings in material curbside and roll-off containers throughout the county that are bringing in material – many located at schools and municipalities that have volunteered to do collection programs.
“It’s a pretty busy place,” Hibbard said. “And we bring in a lot of material, we go through 8,000-10,000 pounds of material a day.”
According to 2021 data, Hibbard said residents and businesses brought in 1,630 tons of material. “For a small, rural county I find that impressive,” she said.
Commissioner Elizabeth Arnold commended Hibbard for her work at the facility.
The commissioners along with local emergency service providers and municipal officials were invited to meet with representatives of the Public Utilities Commission and utility companies in a closed-door meeting held Thursday, Nov. 3, to talk about the frequency and duration of power outages in the county.
Commissioner Alan Hall noted that falling trees are a big issue, but said some of the problems are caused by trees that are located just outside the utility companies’ right-of-way that still fall “hit their lines and cause problems. He also said one issue is an aging infrastructure.
“Bottom line is, they’re short help like everyone else is,” Hall said. He added that five positions were open in the Montrose office. “They are working on it. I think the PUC and everybody came out of the meeting understanding the problem with outages.”
The county is working on a program through the GIS system to help electric companies be able to pinpoint outage areas quicker, said Hall.
“The meeting was a good doorway to discuss points of view for both sides,” added Commissioner Judy Herschel. “I did get the impression that the PUC walked away from that completely understanding our dilemma.”
2023 County Budget
The county’s proposed 2023 budget is available for public review in the lobby of the courthouse, as well as in the four public library branches. It is also available on the county website.
The proposed budget totals $43,298.431.74 and will be considered for adoption at the Dec. 14 commissioners’ meeting.
Other items approved by the commissioners included:
*funding a work-based learning internship program through Northern Tier Industry & Education Consortium for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, with a total financial commitment for both years of $10,000;
*funding an education position within the Susquehanna County Conservation District, with a total financial commitment of $10,000 for 2023;
*transfer of the following SRO/County Detectives: John Vachino to Elk Lake; Lee Rowan to Mountain View; John McArthur to Forest City.
A series of PHARE funding resolutions were also approved:
*authorizing filing of a proposal for use of $700,000 of PHARE funding by Trehab;
*authorizing filing of a proposal for use of $125,000 of PHARE funding by Trehab;
*authorizing the filing of a proposal for use of $200,000 of PHARE funding by Susquehanna County Housing Authority;
*entering into a cooperation agreement for the PHARE grant with the Susquehanna County Housing Authority.
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