When the Sitka Assembly meets tonight (10-26-21), it will consider purchasing a $3 million dollar solid waste compactor that would compact Sitka’s garbage into “bails” to reduce the risk of shipping fires at sea. 

Last year, Alaska Marine Lines announced it would no longer allow several Southeast communities, including Sitka, to ship garbage in open topped containers with limited compaction. Sitka contracts its solid waste shipment with Republic Services, which loads shipping containers full of Sitka’s waste onto AML barges to Seattle, then drives the garbage to a landfill in eastern Washington.  

Following AML’s announcement, the city has been negotiating with Republic Services over who will foot the bill for the compacting equipment. The Assembly heard a presentation from Republic Services last spring, and representatives from the company maintained that the cost was on the city. If the city didn’t invest in new compacting equipment, Republic Services was contractually obligated to find another way to ship garbage off the island, which they said would cost the city even more money. 

In a memo to the Assembly, city staff recommend budgeting $3 million for a new compactor at the transfer station. It would be paid for, in large part, by a loan from the Southeast Economic Development Fund. Once the system is installed, it’s estimated to cut costs by around 26,000 a year.  

In other business, the Sitka Assembly will consider including a land acknowledgement in future meetings, and it will revisit the city’s long-term parking rules at Crescent Harbor and Sealing Cove. 

The Sitka Assembly meets at 5 p.m. tonight for a work session with the Climate Action Task Force, and reconvenes at 6 p.m. for its regular meeting tonight. Raven Radio will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly.

The Blue Lake Road opened last week- it is one of few municipal watersheds in the country that doesn’t have to be filtered, only chlorinated. (KCAW Photo)

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The Blue Lake Road reopened last week, but for the City of Sitka and the U.S. Forest Service, increasing public access comes with a price. Community Affairs Director Maegan Bosak and Environmental Superintendent Shilo Williams joined us to talk about how citizens can protect the Blue Lake Watershed- the community’s main source of drinking water.

Garbage cans stand in a Sitka alley. Despite a 21 percent customer rate increase, the borough’s trash-disposal budget is short of money. (Emily Kwong/KCAW)

Sitka is spending a lot more than expected to get rid of its trash.

The reason? Officials didn’t put enough money into their spending plans.

“I’m not going to give you any lame excuse tonight. This was a budgeting miss,” said Jay Sweeney, Sitka’s chief financial and administrative officer, at Tuesday’s assembly meeting.

“A number of eyes looked at this. But ultimately, my eyes were the last ones to look at it. And it was missed,” he said.

The mistake cost close to $725,000 during the previous budget year, which ended in June. And this budget year, which began in July? It could run between $900,000 to $1 million.

Officials said they didn’t plan to ask for a customer rate increase to fill the gap during this budget year. Fees went up 21 percent in 2016.

The additional expense is part of a recent solid waste contract with the trash-disposal company Alaska Pacific Environmental Services, known as APES.

Like the old contract, the newer one covers the recycling center, garbage collection, transfers to shipping containers and barging trash to a Lower-48 landfill.

But it boosts several charges, especially at the transfer station. That adds up to around 20 percent more than what’s in the budget.

Mayor Matthew Hunter said Sitka didn’t really have a choice.

“It’s unfortunate we didn’t have a lower bidder, but we only had two who wanted to come to our small island community and take our small amount of trash,” he said.

And the other bidder would have charged significantly more.

The municipality did raise trash pickup rates and other fees. That’s significantly reducing the gap. But it’s not enough to cover all the expenses, as discovered by Sweeney.

He said the city can still shrink the funding gap.

“The real place where we will be able to save our costs is within the transfer station operations and the shipping of the trash south. Literally, if we don’t consume it, then we’re not going to pay,” he said.

Municipal staff and assembly members said that could mean more recycling, burning pallets, increased composting and keeping glass out of the waste stream. The city is charged based on weight.

The assembly voted unanimously to cover the previous fiscal year’s funding gap. And it passed this year’s extra spending on first reading. That means it will come before the assembly again.

Tuesday night (10-27-15), the Assembly approved a contract for solid waste management that would raise garbage rates by 21.3%. Here’s a table detailing those proposed to Sitka’s solid waste rate structure. (Photo courtesy of City and Borough of Sitka)

Tuesday night (10-27-15), the Sitka Assembly approved a contract with Alaska Pacific Environmental Services to continue collecting Sitka’s garbage. The agreement does come with one important caveat: In their bid, Alaska Pacific said customer rates must increase by 21.3%.

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Solid waste is a fancy word for all the garbage you put out on the curb, drop off at the Sawmill Creek recycling center, or take to the Transfer Station on Jarvis Street. And for 2700 paying Sitkans, solid waste gets carted away once a week by a company called the Alaska Pacific Environmental Services.

To keep their service going, the company wants to increase customer rates by 21%. But what does that mean for customers? Public Works Director Michael Harmon shared the bill, crunched by Chief Finance Officer Jay Sweeney.

Jay’s not here tonight and I know he’d really want me to make sure we put that percentage in perspective. So let me put out a couple here. So a 96-gallon cart, that’s the bulk of our residential customers, that’s a $8.94 increase a month.

So the garbage bill would jump from $42 to $51. For a 48-gallon cart, the bill would rise by $5.32 a month, going from roughly $25 to $30.

Under the new contract, the Transfer Station Operation would remain open six days a week and the residents could still dispose of 200 lbs. of waste a month for free. Rates at the Transfer Station would also increase, from 6 cents/lb to 8 cents/lb.

It’s a small hike compared to the one suggested by Alaska Waste. They were the only other company to bid on waste management in Sitka and proposed a rate increase of 100%.

Assembly member Matthew Hunter felt that, since rates haven’t been touched in Sitka for 10 years, 21% was good deal. “21 percent – that’s below inflation. That’s 1.9 percent a year for the last ten year, equates to 21 percent. When you actually look at how the cost of services have gone up, I think we’re lucky that we’re only looking at 1.9 percent increase every year for our solid waste,” he said.

Cost concerns is the main reason Alaska Pacific wants to raise rates in the first place.

Don Anderson, the company’s Operations Manager, said that several garbage trucks and other vehicles badly need to be replaced. “We’ve been living with a year to year contract, so our vehicles are really getting abused and past their work period.”

Furthermore, Anderson said the costs to remove Sitka’s waste off the island are rising, and that the price of recyclables are falling. That’s right. Your aluminum cans and cardboard boxes are a commodity that Alaska Pacific has to put on a barge and sell. City Administrator Mark Gorman said that commodity prices aren’t doing so well. “Aluminum is still high. I think #2 plastic is still high. But for example paper products is costing us more right now, to send them to be recycled, than if we put them in our regular waste stream,” Gorman said.

It’s expensive work, but needs to be done. Sweeney sent a memo to the Assembly, urging them award this contract now lest the city lose Alaska Pacific altogether. The company’s contract officially expired this spring and has been extended on a month-to-month basis.

City Administrator Mark Gorman assured the assembly that if they approved of the contract, a fee ordinance would follow. “There will be an opportunity for the Assembly to adjudicate on it again and for the public to speak on it,” he said.

Gorman added that the political order of operations for this contract is not ideal.

“There’s a little awkwardness,” he told the Assembly. If you approve the contract, then for whatever reason, the Assembly decides not to approve the [fee increase] ordinance, we’ll deplete the enterprise fund.” Basically, the city would have no sustainable way to pay for this contract.

So a rate increase for garbage collection is very likely on its way. Assembly member Steven Eisenbeisz had some reservations about that. He said, “I’m really worried about a 21 percent increase and looking at any ways to possibly reduce that.”

Eisenbeisz wondered if that could be accomplished by reducing operation at the Jarvis Street Transfer station. Under the contract, that station would remain open six days a week. Harmon said the contract is open to negotiation down the line.

In the contract, there is even a clause which says that, five years from now, the city can explore a commingled curbside recycling program. Instead of dropping off recycling at the Sawmill Creek center, Sitkans could gather their paper and plastic and such in a second bin and leave it on the curb.

The Solid Waste Advisory Committee seriously considered this option, but rejected the terms of Alaska Pacific to carry out the program. Alaska Pacific wanted to raise rates by $10.45 per customer, shut down the recycling center, and make curbside commingled recycling mandatory.

The Assembly passed the contract with Alaska Pacific, unanimously.

To see how the addition of a commingled recycling program would have affected rates, review the green column in the table below. 

The vote marks the start of a total reexamination of how Sitka deals with its trash.

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The city plans to hire the firm CB&I (Shaw Environmental, Inc., a Chicago Bridge and Iron Company) to draw up the plan.

City Administrator Mark Gorman spoke for many in the room when he said he initially had “sticker shock” at the cost. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a lot, he said.

“We’ve received some comments from the public,” Gorman said. “Saying, a quarter of a million dollars, what is this buying us?”

What it’s buying is a top-to-bottom assessment of how Sitka handles its waste now, what it could do differently in the future, and how much it all might cost. The study will cover everything from trash and recycling to composting and bear problems. The city last created a waste management plan in the 1990s, Gorman said, and it’s about time it was updated.

“The price seems high, but not doing it, I think the price will be considerably higher,” Gorman said.

Public works director Michael Harmon is heading up the effort. He said one of the big issues the plan will address is whether to ramp up the city’s recycling program. Right now, residents can drop off household recycling at the Sitka Recycle Center. But Harmon said that other communities across Southeast are trying a different approach.

“[In] Southeast, in particular Juneau and Petersburg, there’s a big focus, even Ketchikan, looking at upping their recycle program and moving to curbside recycling, where you get it collected at your home-site,” Harmon said.

Gorman said that Sitka currently has a fairly low rate of recycling.

“And if you make access easier, for example curbside recycling, you can drive that way up,” Gorman said.

But the plan will address much more than just recycling – everything from how much waste Sitka can expect to generate in the future – and how much it will cost just to maintain existing services – to what would be required to add new services, like composting.

Harmon said that CB&I was chosen in part because they’ve worked with other Alaskan cities, including Kodiak and Juneau, and understand some of the challenges that Sitka faces as a remote island community. Sitka currently ships its garbage by barge and rail to the Roosevelt landfill in eastern Washington; recycling is also shipped to Washington State.

A team from CB&I will be in Sitka the week of March 11 to kick off the effort. They will meet with the assembly and city staff, and hold several public meetings to hear from community members.

Harmon said he hopes for a final plan to be ready this fall. The city’s current contracts for garbage collection and off-island disposal expire in 2015, and Harmon said that would be a good time to make any changes, if the city does decide to transform the way it takes out the trash.

(Photo courtesy of Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game)

It’s March, and brown bears will start emerging from their dens in the next couple of weeks with one thing in mind: Food.

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Last summer and fall, bears struggled to find enough berries and fish to eat. Some were out as late as December trying to stock up on calories for their winter hibernation.

When bears leave their dens, Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game biologist Phil Mooney says they become eating machines.

“There’s really two things that drive bears: It’s sex and it’s food,” Mooney said. “It’s that simple. The breeding season is about the only time that it shifts to that urge to breed. And the rest of the time, they’re looking for food.”

In their natural environment in early spring, bears subsist mainly on grasses and sedges, which Mooney calls a ‘dry salad’ compared to the buffet of steak and seafood options available around humans.

“If you just total up the number of calories you can get from the stuff we throw away versus a bear,” he said, “especially this time of year, coming out and trying to get that type of quality food, there’s no comparison.”

Human food waste is like a drug for bears. Once they know it’s there and get used having it around, it becomes really tough to keep them from coming back.

“They’re gonna hit the can,” he said, “and they’re going to keep coming back for that can even if you try to change your ways immediately and clean the thing out and bleach it or whatever. The bear’s gonna come back to that spot and he’s going to keep checking it until he finally tires out and goes someplace else.”

He says it’s important that everyone properly dispose of garbage all year long. He says bear reports come in year-round, and it takes the whole neighborhood being diligent with their waste.

“You can have everybody on the street, say 9 out of 10 houses on a street, do it perfectly, and have one person who doesn’t want to do it,’ said Mooney. “The bear comes in there and once they come in, they’re going to check every single can.”

Authorities recommend that people freeze any food and animal parts, put baby diapers in a separate, sealed container, and make a trip to the transfer station on Jarvis Street. Everyone is allowed to dump up to 200 pounds of waste per month for free.

If you can’t make it to the transfer station, the next best thing is to wait and put smelly waste in the trash can the morning of garbage day.

If you spot a bear and it is not a threat, Mooney says you should call the business line at the police station at 747-3245. He says they record the reports and use them to track bear activity in the area.

It’s estimated to be about 8 feet tall and like many bears, is really into garbage. Fish and animal waste, cooking oils, and even baby diapers are attractive to bears, and experts say once they learn it’s in your trash, they’ll keep coming back.

And Sitka police Lieutenant Barry Allen says even chaining your trash can shut doesn’t always work.

“We’ve had more than one instance where the bears are flattening out the trash cans and just pulling stuff through the cracks in the lids,” he said. “We’ve had at least one occasion where we’ve had bears chew through one of the big trash containers.”

The solution? Allen says you should freeze any food and animal parts, put diapers in a separate container, and make a trip to the transfer station on Jarvis Street. Everyone is allowed to dump up to 200 pounds of waste per month for free.

If you can’t make it to the transfer station, he says the next best thing is to wait and put smelly waste in the trash can the morning of garbage day.