Members of the Solid Waste Management Board for Mississippi County met Tuesday to discuss how to deal with violations of an ordinance which requires all waste generated within the county to be disposed of at the county's landfill.
Kelly Hicks of the county's financial management office said that while the ordinance has been in existence since 1998, the district has nothing on paper that defines how it is to be enforced. She recommended a plan in which all the county's registered haulers would be informed of the ordinance during the January-May period when they pay to renew their licenses, then receive a warning letter upon the first violation and a fine upon the second.
"The difficulty would be actually catching people," she said. "Because it's not feasible for us to have someone driving around to watch haulers. But I don't really think we're having a lot of problem with this, based on our numbers and the amount of waste that's coming in -- we haven't seen a decrease; but the judge thought it would be a good idea to have something in writing for this."
The board discussed how to deal with companies which sell some of their waste materials as recyclables, and how the difference between the two would be determined. Blytheville Mayor James Sanders suggested the district have its attorney look into the matter for better definition, since the recycling industry has undergone many changes since 1998, when the ordinance was written.
Hicks also informed the board that the grant department of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has been dissolved, and that grant money will now come in without the need for an application process. Each district will also now be responsible for managing the flow of its money and keeping records sufficient for possible audits on their own terms.
The board voted to have Hicks prepare a resolution defining the management of the funds along the same lines that have been used in the past, as well as documentation for the enforcing of the waste ordinance, to be reviewed and voted upon at a future meeting.
The board will next meet at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18.
sharris@blythevillecourier.com