BY MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
GLASGOW NEWS 1
With the parking lot diagonally across from the Glasgow Department of Public Works office along West Front Street having been sold as part of the justice center project, the city is moving its Saturday recycling drop-off location.
This was one of several items of discussion during Monday’s meeting of the Glasgow Common Council Infrastructure Committee at the DPW conference room.
Although the city offers curbside recycling, the option residents have of dropping off their recyclables on the first Saturday of each month has been growing in popularity after that opportunity, which had been weekly, was stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
April Russell, interim DPW superintendent, said that starting this month, recycling dropoff days will be the first and third Saturdays, with the goal of eventually getting back to having it weekly.
But the location for the event will now be at the recycling building that is at the Glasgow Regional Landfill. Russell emphasized that the materials are not being deposited into the landfill; the recycling center just happens to be at the landfill property, but there is a separate entrance just beyond the landfill office that is beside the scales for the landfill.
A second recycling building is being constructed for collection and storage of recyclables, especially cardboard, as exposure to weather elements can reduce the selling price of the materials, she said. The current building is where the conveyor and sorting facilities are.
Changing the location means the staff members only handle the materials once now, rather than collecting them at one site and then unloading them at the recycling building.
Everything the city would collect curbside may be dropped off at this site – glass, cans, No. 1 and No. 2 plastics, cardboard and paper.
Wes Billingsley, a DPW foreman, said they are collecting materials the city can sell.
“We’re not making any money on it, but we’re keeping it out of the landfill,” he said. “It’s not taking up space in the landfill.”
Nick Miller, landfill manager, said in response to a question from Councilman Marlin Witcher that they don’t break from the sales. The last couple of years, it had cost the city more to get rid of some of the recyclable materials than what they were getting for others, he said.
“But the main thing is, keep it out of the landfill,” Witcher said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Street projects
With the funding the city anticipates receiving through the Municipal Road Aid program, the department proposes work on at least portions of six city streets in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2024.
“This year, we still have Trojan Trail,” Russell said. “When school gets out, we’ll do Trojan Trail and we’ll stripe it, and that’ll use up our municipal road aid for this fiscal year.”
Glasgow Department of Public Works employees construct a sidewalk Monday from West Front Street, across from the DPW offices, to a parking lot owned by the Glasgow Water Co. where DPW employees are going to be allowed to park due to the sale of their parking lot for the Barren County justice center project. MELINDA J. OVERSTREET / GLASGOW NEWS 1
The lengths of streets proposed for paving in FY 24 are 1,400 feet of West Brown Street, 1,110 of Saint Mary’s Court, 450 feet of Joann Drive, 1,800 feet of Williams Avenue and Douglas Drive, and 1,780 feet of Rogers Road.
Russell said they may have enough for a couple of other projects and asked the committee members for suggestions. A hearing on the use of the funds will be scheduled to take place before the first reading of the city’s proposed budget for next fiscal year.
Discussion of the need for sidewalks in certain areas followed for several minutes.
Cooperation
Russell noted that because of the lack of parking close to the DPW office building now due to the sale of the land for the justice center project, Mayor Henry Royse had worked out an agreement with the Glasgow Water Co. for employees to be able to park in the GWC lot off West Water Street, between West Water and West Front Street. As the meeting was taking place, DPW employees were constructing a sidewalk from West Front Street to that lot for easier access.
Cleanup week tallies
The Glasgow Department of Public Works picked up an additional 78 tons of trash during spring cleanup week in March, and the county collected and brought to the landfill 180 tons.
“All free,” Russell said, referring to the cost to residents.
The normal price for a ton of material to be received at the landfill is $50, said Nick Miller, landfill manager, so that’s a total of $3,900 saved by Glasgow residents and $9,000 by residents from the rest of the county.
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