Waste management services could soon all be in one convenient location.
The City and Borough of Juneau Committee of the Whole will be presented with two options for consideration of housing all waste programs, including recycling, household hazardous waster (HHW) and composting during its regular meeting in Assembly Chambers at 6 p.m. today.
The reason for the consideration comes from the closure of the Lemon Creek recycling facility in February and interest over that last year from Alaskan Brewing Company in purchasing CBJ lots just west of its Shaune Drive location. According to the memo that City Manager Rorie Watt will be presenting to the COW, those four lots have been appraised for $2.87 million. Those lots contain the water utility and HHW facilities. The water utility will move to the old Valley Street maintenance shop and HHW will need to be relocated.
That is where the consolidation comes in. The two properties that will be up for consideration Monday will both offer enough land for recycling, composting and HHW programs.
The first option will be a 5.4-acre property at Anka Street in Lemon Creek that would need to be purchased. The appraised cost of the property is $3.3 million. According to the memo, the existing building would be renovated and modified for a recycling program and a new structure would be built for the HHW program. There is also land for a composting program.
The second option is at Capitol Disposal Landfill, 5600 Tonsgard Ct., where the city will use land on a contract and lease basis. A new recycling building would be built by Waste Management and the program would be operated by WM under a 30-year contract. CBJ would lease land for the HHW and composting programs and could construct the structure and operate those programs.
Revenue required for each option would be based on maintaining a fund balance of approximately $1.5 million.
COW dives into revised flood mapping
The committee will also see a presentation on potential new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps for Juneau.
The public will be able to weigh in on the proposed maps and send any comments and appeals to the Community Development Department by July 9.
From there the CDD bundles all comments and forwards them to FEMA Region 10 service center. In the winter of 2018-19, FEMA will issue the letter of final determination to adopt the revised maps.
The city Planning Commission and Assembly will have six months after receiving the letter to adopt the revised floods maps.
• Contact reporter Gregory Philson at gphilson@juneauempire.com or call at 523-2265. Follow him on Twitter at @GTPhilson.
