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 Okay, Susan. Okay. Good morning. It is 9 o'clock and we do have a virtual quorum. So we'll

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 call to order the Public Utilities Board meeting from Monday, August 10th, 2020. The first

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 item on the agenda is a consent agenda. Does any board member wish to pull one of the items?

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 All right. So then do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move we approve.

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 Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Next item is a consider approval of

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 the July 27th, 2020 minutes. And I was talking with Tony earlier and I just want to remind

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 everyone that this is supposed to be a summary of meetings that are official minutes are

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 the videos. So we don't need to really make sure that it's verbatim, but at least that

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 it's accurate reflection of the meetings. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes

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 of July 27th? I so move. Do we have a second? I'll second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay.

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 Then consider approval of August 3rd, 2020 minutes. Do we have a motion to approve? I

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 move we approve. Okay. And a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right.

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 Management reports. So thank you very much. So the first item that we have on the management

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 reports is a update on a grant that we received. Dr. Banks is certainly on the line if you

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 have any questions on that, but we will be taking a resolution to the council to receive

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 approval for that grant. It is for surveillance of some sites, primarily around the city limits

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 of the city where we have some frequent illegal dumping, but certainly our environmental services

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 staff will be working with the cog doing a risk assessment and potentially those cameras

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 may be rotated from location to location. But if you have any questions on that, Dr. Banks

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 is on the line if you like to have anything that you'd like for him to add. Welcome, Charlie.

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 Good morning. Sorry, I was a minute late. It's all right. Any questions on the surveillance

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 camera grant? Dr. Banks, real quick, I remember that this came up when you were going to apply

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 for the grant maybe a year ago. I was wondering if you had the date of that when it was on

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 the agenda, just so I can go back and check my minutes.

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 Good morning, board members. This is Ken Banks, general manager of utilities. Can you hear

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 me? Good morning. We actually have the information on the prior action and review section of

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 the agenda information sheet. So that information was provided to you, the board, on December

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 the 8th and then we followed up with the December the 9th work session with the with the city

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 council, both the grant, both the board and the board recommended advancing in the council

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 advised staff to do so. Okay. Does that answer your question? Yeah, thanks. For some reason,

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 I didn't see that on the on the information, but there it is now, of course. Thanks. Sorry

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 about that. Okay. No, no problems. Thank you. All right. Okay, so the next item is a future

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 agenda items. This is certainly not a, you know, a fully exhaustive list. There's there'll

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 be other items are just to give you a sense of women may be coming up in the in the coming

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 agendas. And then the last item is our action matrix. Think everything on there except for

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 the very first one, which is the lawsuit update that the committee has or the board has requested

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 legal department will be taking that to council for consideration and depending on their direction,

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 and then we'll certainly follow up with the P B on that. And that really concludes the

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 city management section update. If you have any questions, we certainly happy to answer

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 any questions we have. Yes, go ahead. You're on mute. Russ, you're on mute. Sorry, you

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 missed all my wonderful narrative. Item four is something I asked about several months

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 ago. The difference between the approved capital versus the amount we're able to physically

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 implement and accomplish. And it says the status of the July 27. I still don't think

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 that we've got a adequate response on that. What's what's the What's the idea there? So

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 the rest of that's, that was an update that was provided to the PB as part of the budget

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 presentation that we did for water and wastewater. We thought that we had addressed your question,

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 maybe you and I need to get offline and get a better idea of what it is that you're looking

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 for. But certainly, if that hasn't fully provided your response, I'll be happy to meet with

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 you and see what it is you're looking for. Yeah, you did the I think the comment was

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 made that we're getting more projects accomplished than we used to, but we still don't get everything

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 done that we say we want to do and needs to be done. And my question is, why? What's the

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 impediment? What are the obstacles that's preventing the utility department from getting

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 the projects implemented on time? That's the question. I've never heard a real adequate

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 response to that. I think the adequate response is that it's taken us two or three years to

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 basically pull up all the projects that had been approved based on fee increases implemented

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 from 15 to 17. And there was 10s of millions of dollars parked and unallocated funds and

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 in electric water, wastewater in particular, those projects were piling up, reporting wasn't

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 there. And there was no way of really tracking on a year to year basis what had been approved

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 versus what is actually getting implemented. It's taken us three budget cycles to kind

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 of get all that pulled up along with the streets program as well. So we can actually sit there

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 and audit it and then monitor monthly spend to ensure that whatever we're taking is getting

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 invested in the infrastructure. But it was just simply poor reporting, not the ability

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 to decentralize finances. So we've been able to put all that together. We're meeting on

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 a quarterly basis to measure spend, make sure that what is being told to us that they can

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 get done is actually getting done. And just really emphasizing the coordination between

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 the water, wastewater and street departments in particular. And that breaking down those

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 silos, kind of sharing that information and putting all of our projects up on spreadsheets

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 during the last 18 months has dramatically turned that around. But what we found is that

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 there was a significant four or five, six year backlog on projects that we had raised

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 rates for but had not gotten done. And so that is that's the issue. And we've cleaned

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 those processes up. And, and I feel comfortable that we could share the same kind of level

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 of reporting that we're seeing at house with you at any time you'd like to see those.

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 Okay, that's good. I can understand getting behind. I guess my question is, can we see

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 a projected schedule on when you think you'll be able to catch up? Absolutely. Approved

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 projects. Yeah, absolutely. That's exactly how we're monitoring it in house and making

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 sure and it's part of the reason that you've seen no rate increases request for us the

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 last couple budget cycles is I won't support that with council unless I know that we can

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 actually keep up and get the projects done that we that we say we can get done and whittling

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 down that backlog. So we were absolutely able to share that with you probably no later than

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 September or October in that timeframe. Yeah, that'd be great. I like okay. And on the list

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 here that that we would I would like to see a written estimated schedule of completion

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 for all the various projects that didn't get done when they were supposed to be done. Yeah,

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 there's got to be some catch up period and some plan to catch up. Yep. Thank you. Alright,

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 that brings us to concluding items I guess already put one on the list there. Does any

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 other board member have an item that they'd like on a future agenda or anything they'd

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 like to say to the staff? Yes, Ed. Go ahead, Ed. You're on mute. Oh, there I go. I don't

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 know if it's possible to pursue this now with but I would like any sort any sort of update

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 on the progress of the solid waste strategic management plan where that stands. And I also

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 had some questions. We will be told or have the opportunity to have a presentation on

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 the company that is that is chosen to do this plan the consultancy that's chosen or if it's

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 just something that's going to be done by staff, and then when the plan is done, it

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 will be brought to us and then the council. Will we have any voice in the preparations

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 going into this waste management strategy plan? I guess is my question. So we have Brian

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 Borner here. He could probably respond really quick on that. Brian. Good morning, Brian

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 Borner, Director of Solid Waste for the City of Denton. I appreciate the opportunity to

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 address this question. We are very close to bringing forward to the PUB and the City Council

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 the contract to actually enter into the agreement with the company to go ahead and start our

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 solid waste management strategy. We're currently under a non-disclosure agreement, but as soon

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 as we get that all the I's dotted and T's crossed that will be brought to you. We will

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 have a short presentation on the company, why they were selected, and what the flow

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 of the implementation and preparation of the strategy will be. So I would expect that within

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 the within the next few weeks before the board. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Anything

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 else? Alright, then we will go into work session and receive a report, hold a discussion and

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 give staff direction regarding update on options concerning the operations of the residential

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 recycling centers in the City of Denton. You're on mute, Brian. Excuse me. Good morning. Brian

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 Burner, Director of Solid Waste for the City of Denton. I appreciate the opportunity to

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 talk a little bit about our residential recycling centers here at the City of Denton. We'll

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 be sharing a screen. Alright, the City of Denton operates a very robust solid waste

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 and recycling program throughout the City of Denton. As part of our recycling program,

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 we have established several convenience, convenient points throughout the city to actually collect

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 residential recycling from our residents, whether they are currently have access to

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 our program or not. Currently, we have two locations. The first one is located at the

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 City of Denton Landfill. It's open during normal operation hours, Monday through Saturday,

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 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. of the landfill. And then we have an unattended, unstaffed site at the

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 North Lakes Park. Currently, just like the rest of our program, we take programmatic

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 material only. So we do not take textiles. We do not take metals. Really, if you can

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 put it in your cart at the curb, that is the material we will receive at our residential

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 recycling centers. We empty these dumpsters three times per week. And, you know, they're

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 heavily used. And so we do service those on a routine basis. One of our issues, though,

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 is we have a tremendous amount of illegal dumping at the North Lakes site. Currently,

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 we have, you know, lawn care equipment, electronics, furniture, just thrown out at the site. And

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 it requires us to go in on a daily basis, usually multiple times during the day and

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 actually pick up this material and haul it out. You know, both the sites, both our staff

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 site at the landfill, as well as the unstaffed site at the North Lakes Park, is open to use

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 by anyone. We do not shut our doors because we understand that this is a need throughout

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 the area. But, again, we would assume that everybody using this site would dispose of

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 program material also, programmatic material also. When we ask who actually is using our

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 recycle centers, while the North Lakes site is unstaffed, we do not know actually who

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 goes there. We do take names and addresses of people that come to the landfill site.

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 And it gives us a good insight of who may be using our facility. At the landfill property,

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 we have almost 60% city of Denton residents. So this could be, you know, just your single

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 family dweller. This could be an apartment dweller. Just somebody who lives in the city

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 of Denton and wants to manage materials other than at the curb or at their facility. About

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 35% of our traffic actually comes from within Denton County, but outside of the city of

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 Denton. So we may have cities like Sanger, Crumb, Valley View, Crossroads, Corinth, Lake

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 Dallas. The list goes on and on. But they come and they dispose of material at our facility.

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 The remaining 7% of the visitors that come to our landfill come from outside of Denton

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 County. We've had people come from as far as Decatur, city of Dallas, residents of Fort

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 Worth, throughout Cook, Grayson, Wise, Tarrant, Collin, Dallas counties that actually come

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 to use our facility to get rid of programmatic materials. So again, we have a very diverse

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 participation at our facilities. When you look at the recycling materials that we collect

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 from all sources, only about 5% actually come from our recycle centers here in the city

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 of Denton. 65% of the material that we get on an annual basis or about 5,400 tons comes

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 from the single family residential units and 100% of our single family customers have access

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 to curbside collection. Currently about one third of our commercial customers, which again

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 includes business and multi-family customers, choose to recycle with the city of Denton.

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 While commercial customers are required to have trash service through the city of Denton,

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 the recycling opportunities are open market and approximately one third actually choose

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 to come with the city of Denton. Those that do not, we know that some of those contract

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 with outside partners to manage recycle material, but we don't have a handle on who exactly

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 or how much is recycled through that. So the 30% of our total sources that are collected

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 are about 2,400 tons. That comes from our commercial sector.

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 I had a question. Yes. You say roughly one third of commercial customers choose to recycle.

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 What do the other two thirds do? Either they contract with a private hauler,

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 so somebody else that may offer commercial recycling services elsewhere, they will come

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 in and manage that material or they choose not to recycle because either one, they're

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 processes or what they dispose of does not contain recycled material or two, just from

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 the cost benefit analysis, they've chosen not to do that.

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 Thank you. You're welcome.

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 I've got a question. Yes.

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 I was wondering if apartments were considered commercial or I know that Ed is probably going

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 to ask about apartment recycling, so I thought I'd just jump in ahead of him, but what are

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 the opportunities for apartment dwellers? Because only the single family.

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 Apartments are considered multi-family. So again, five units or above has the opportunity

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 through our commercial collection to recycle. Again, about a third of those commercial customers,

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 both business and multi-family units, choose to recycle with the City of Denver.

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 So they're considered commercial? They fall under a commercial collection, correct.

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 Thanks, Brian. You're welcome.

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00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:51,600
 I want to follow up on that. Do we know how many apartment complexes do offer recycling

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 programs? We do, but I do not have that number off the

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 top of my head. All right.

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 I can follow up with you on that. I had also a question if you have the information

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 of how many rental units there actually are in Denton.

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 I do not know that off the top of my head because there are some rental units, which

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 may be single family, which may be duplexes or quadplexes, which still fall into that

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 single family, but they are commercial, but the account is carried in the lessor or the

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 renter's name, and as a result, we do not know whether that's rental property or whether

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 it's privately owned.

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00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:38,400
 Okay. Next slide. Looking back the past year, June 2019

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 through June 2020, and this may seem like an odd time period, but we wanted to make

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 sure that we caught the COVID in our data analysis here.

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 One thing that we've really seen since March is a real uptick in the amount of material,

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 both garbage and recycling, that's coming into the city of Denton as a result of material,

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 people staying at home, working from home, a lot more waste is generated from home.

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 Going through what I like to call corn cleaning, you're quarantined and you need something

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 to do, so you're cleaning out that old junk door, that closet, the garage, so we're seeing

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 a lot more material either placed at the curb or brought to the landfill as a result.

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 One other thing that between this June, excuse me, this June 19 and June 20 period, we did

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 have an additional unattended site at the cupboard that was set up through the end of

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 March. The city of, or excuse me, Denton ISD actually bought that facility, turned it into

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 their IT center. As a result, we had to close down that facility, so part of our results

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 here include those volumes. Looking at our unattended staff sites, about

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 63% of the material that we collect are actually programmatic, recyclable material. The other

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 37% is contamination, again, films, tanglers, textiles, materials that we don't have on

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 our program material and have to go through and go to the landfill. And again, that could

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 be a recycle material, but it's contaminated because it wasn't emptied or clean or dry

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 when we got it. As a note, this contamination level does not include the amount of illegal

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 dumping that occurs at the staff site. That's collected as bulky material thrown in the

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 truck, so we don't have an actual weight on that material that we collect at the facility.

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 If we look at our staff site at the landfill, you'll note that we collect about a little

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 bit more than half the material that we collected at the other two sites, but again, on a one-to-one

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 basis, the volumes even out. About 85% of that material is actually recyclable, with

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 the last 15% being contamination. Again, either program material that's not empty, clean,

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 or dry, or a plastic bag or something else that makes its way into the system. Again,

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 we note here by the data that having a facility that is staffed, somebody there, somebody

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 sort of taking toll of who's coming in and out, actually creates an opportunity for the

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 materials that we're collecting to be more valuable, cleaner, and at the end of the day,

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 the potential to be recycled is greatly increased.

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 I have a question, Brian. This is a better rate than it was previous year, correct?

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 At the landfill it is. At the unstaffed site, it is not. If you'll notice, if you'll remember

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 for those of you who've been here for a bit on the committee, about two years ago, the

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 landfill site was actually located at the entrance outside the gate, and at that point

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 in time, 100% of the material that we collected was contaminated just because it was unstaffed.

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 By moving it back behind the gate, having staff at the landfill being able to observe

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 what's being offloaded and observe residents actually managing this material, we've actually

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 significantly cleaned it up and created a value chain that's beneficial to the city.

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 Thank you. In last year's budget, we actually proposed

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 to move our North Lake site from the east side of the park to the west side of the park.

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 This move was necessitated as a result of the creation of the City of Denton's Competition

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 Tennis Center. The area that is currently accounted for with our North Lakes Recycle

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 Center would be parking facilities as well as tennis courts, and as a result, we need

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 to be moving that. There was about $462,000 that was earmarked for this project, and it's

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 actually funded through the residential customer class. So, again, this would be actually revenue

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 funded. There is no bonding that's appropriated with this. Currently, we have completed design

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 and permitting. We're getting bids for the construction, and if we go forward with this,

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 we estimate this job to be completed by December, end of December, end of this year. One of

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 the upgrades from the existing facility, first and foremost, is the enhancement of the containers

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 themselves. Currently, most of the containers that are collected are just standard dumpsters

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 with holes in them that you can put material in. What we want to do is to put these 30-yard

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 containers in that have size-selected holes. So, basically, you can't put materials in

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 that are too large or non-programmatic. So that we've noted by doing some test runs on

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 these at the North Lake site, the quality of the material within these dumpsters are

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 significantly cleaner. There will be video as well as time-controlled gates. So sunrise

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 to sunset as opposed to 24 hours a day. In the dark of night, you don't have somebody

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 coming in and illegally dumping. It would be actually closed down at that point. One

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 of the things that we were thinking about, though, is that with the significant amount

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 of outside residents that are using this at no charge to them, as well as the tremendous

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 amount of illegal dumping, we've got to get a handle on this. We thought about piloting

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 a mobile recycling center throughout the city over the next year, working to host events

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 basically 26 times a year. So every other Saturday, from about 9 in the morning to 12

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 noon, we would basically hopscotch around the city, one site a weekend, start using

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 recreation centers, park sites, city facilities, basically to host these recycle events. We

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 would put two or three cans out on the ground, have city staff there to help assist residents

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 answer any questions they have about recycling and appropriate practices. And as this thing

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 potentially works towards success, we can expand this, working with Keep Denton Beautiful

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 Sustainability, add additional services such as appliances, home chemical collections,

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 do tree giveaways at these areas. I think the opportunity to have that single point

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 of contact with residents is greatly increased at this point. So when we look at the finances

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 between the two analyses, when we look at our single unstaffed site at North Lakes currently,

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 if we keep going down the road with the debt service that we've discussed, we're spending

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 about $157,000 a year to operate and manage these sites. And that does include the revenue

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 offset of slightly more than $6,000 that we receive off the sale of those recycled material.

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 We would anticipate that by moving to mobile staff, staff mobile collections, we could

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 actually reduce that to about $44,000, almost $45,000 a year with, again, that commodity

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 with no impact, commodity revenue offset. Annual savings of slightly more than $112,000.

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 When you look what's happening regionally, you'll notice that most cities are actually

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 shying away from unstaffed type of facilities or events. Again, it goes back to illegal

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 dumping, very poor recovery due to contamination. By using staff site staffed events, whether

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 it be at transfer stations, drop off stations, at their landfills, or again, like we're talking

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 about potentially implementing pilot mobile sites, staff sites, again, create a cleaner

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 product and again, have a much better result in the contamination sector. So to that end,

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 we have two options to consider for recommendation. The first one, which staff recommends is

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 to actually keep the staff site at the landfill open and collecting material as we currently

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 are, but actually close the unstaffed North Lakes Recycle Center. What we would again

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 do for about the next year, at least through the opportunity to complete our solid waste

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 management strategy and then move forward based on those recommendations, is go ahead

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 and pilot our new mobile recycling center program and then evaluate it as we move forward

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 in our solid waste strategy. The second option, again, we can continue going down, expanding

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 the capacity at the landfill and North Lake site, create additional capacity with the

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 customized dumpsters, try to double down again on our education program, targeting really

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 the empty, clean, and dry moniker on the programmatic material. Again, installing cameras, fencing,

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 but again, we would continue to evaluate this for appropriateness as part of our solid waste

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 strategy. With that, I would answer any questions you might have and seek a recommendation from

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 the board. I had just a quick question. Yes, sir. Now,

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 there is going to be a new North Lakes Recycling Center, correct? Currently, that is the plan.

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 However, if we go into this pilot, our recommendation would be to close the North Lake site only

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 for several reasons. First of all, because of the illegal dumping and the contamination

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 that we are seeing at the site and in the bin, but also because of the amount of material

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 that actually would be able to be recycled, actually manage that material through the

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 mobile sites as opposed to North Lakes. Hey, Brian, just really quick, could you drop

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 down your presentation? I can do that.

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 That way everybody can be seen. There we go. Thank you.

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 Okay, I understand. So the option then is to do away completely with North Lakes?

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 Correct. Do away completely with North Lakes, but keep the landfill site operational.

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 And use the mobile. And use the mobile, correct.

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 Has there been any community survey done on how residents, especially residents in that

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 part of town, might feel about that? No, we have not done any sort of outreach

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 at this point, but based on the amount of what we're seeing also from our landfill site,

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 we're seeing residents come in from all areas of the city, not just from the area around

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 the landfill. So again, we feel that by doing it this way,

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 the mobile sites actually brings the Recycle Center closer to the neighborhoods as opposed

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 to where the North Lakes side is. One thing I noticed, even though I get residential

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 recycling pickups every week, is myself and a lot of other folks were using North Lakes

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 and the cupboard when it was open, the cupboard site, for big bulky cardboard and things like

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 that that couldn't fit well into recycling carts. So I mean, I know that people take

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 advantage of both. Even though they have the curbside, they also use the recycling centers

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 like North Lake. I don't think it's a correct impression if there is one, but a person who

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 gets residential recycling just does that. They also use the actual recycling centers.

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 Russ, did you have a question? Yes, a comment. I like the idea of the mobile

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 recycling effort. Not only would that give you a larger amount of recyclables that have

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 some value, but it's a continuing education thing for a lot of residents. And I think

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 I looked at your proposed sites there. Might I suggest you drive it out here to Ropes and

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 Ranch sometime? We have a big parking area and the people out here a lot of times throw

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 things in their carts simply because they're ignorant of the requirements for having a

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 valuable recyclable item. And so you could gain some ground there, I think.

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 And again, the map that we showed, I don't think was exclusive on the sites. It was just

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 to show an example. And again, I think we would fully embrace bringing it out to Ropes

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 and Ranch and other areas that may be satellite concentrations of the population.

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 I think, Charlie, did you have a question? A comment. I echo Russ's comment and also

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 on the mobile recycling. I like the idea. I think the idea of every other Saturday will

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 be a lot more problematic for people. I think if I learned that Woodley Field had recycling

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 every Friday, even if the hours were a little shorter, or North Lakes was every Thursday

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 or whatever day. But the idea of doing every other week, you have to go to a website, you

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 have to look up whether this is your week or not. And I think the frustration of having

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 people come on the wrong week probably outweighs the benefit. I would encourage you to consider

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 doing it every week. And second, if a lot of our recyclers are coming from Denton County,

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 I think it makes sense for us to encourage Denton County to participate in the cost of

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 the center. I think it's valuable to the county, particularly the unincorporated areas to have

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 this kind of service available to people. And maybe they'd kick in some of that 150

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 grand a year for one of these sites that it costs to do that. Third comment and then I'll

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 be done. Education in terms of the non-programmatic materials. You know, what should you do with

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 that hundred pound aluminum item that you have? What should you do with your 20 pounds of copper?

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 Maybe on the city website, if we're not going to process that, we should let people who

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 do buy use materials advertise what they offer as an alternative. Because I do feel bad throwing

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 away something that has 10 or 15 or 20 pounds of aluminum in it. I know somebody would like

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 to have that. I just don't know who that is. All right. Karen had her hand up.

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 Oh, yeah. Just to sort of follow up on Carly's last question. Do you, Ryan, do you have an

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 idea of what outreach and education and advertising you're going to do for the mobile sites or

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 is it too early? Because you're going to have to reach people who, well, I don't know. I

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 suppose you could go on the solid waste bill or something like that, but how are you going

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 to reach everybody who's going to be eligible for the mobile sites?

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 Well, again, I think first and foremost, our web presence and social media outreach, while

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 it's been successful, I think that would be our first hold. Citizens Connection putting

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 out a 90-day calendar, which would say, you know, here's the next three months' worth

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 of sites. We would put things in the bill and then next door and also work closely with

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 neighborhood associations and homeowners associations so that they can communicate with their residents

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 when this mobile unit would be in the area. But again, and also we have specific outreach

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 that we do with our multifamily. As a reminder, again, every resident, single family resident

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 in the city of Denton has access to curbside recycling. What we're really wanting to focus

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 on, again, is those who either choose not to or have that extra material. So focusing

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 very closely with our multifamily communities to manage that material in an appropriate

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 manner. Okay. Yeah, okay. You're muted. Sorry, I had a question about the Mobile Recycling

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 Center. It's called a pilot program. Correct. And most pilot programs have a time limit

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 or a time framework. What is the time framework for this pilot and what will happen if it

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 is not successful? What we anticipate is this pilot will run for a year and in that year

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 time is when we will be putting together our solid waste strategy. And from the strategy

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 will flow what our ultimate determination will be on how we manage either mobile or

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 fixed sites with regards to recycling, illegal dumping, things of that nature. So this is

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 a really a stop gap till we get through the solid waste strategy and then we move forward

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 with recommendations and strategy. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So you need direct,

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00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:40,160
 I am going to say I'm in favor of option one. You know, I have a background in solid waste

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 and we have never been successful in unstaffed drop off centers, even with cameras. So you

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 know who did it, but you can't really do anything about it and you can't go after them. So I

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 really think the mobile program will be a success. We did it back in Minnesota and it

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 was a success. So I'm a hundred percent behind that one. I think most of you have already

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 said option one. Yeah, I'll go with options. Okay. All right. I think we have the direction

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 we need. Okay. All right. Very good. Well, that is the agenda. So do we have a motion

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 to adjourn? Don't move. Okay. We're adjourned.