And I would like to ask the Streets Department to furnish a list of all streets that are not designated by name. COMMISSIONER MOY: I don't think we have that list, Councilman. I don't think that's the point. If you would help us with some of those omissions, we will address them.
Well, I wouldn't know what street it is, because you look up there and on all four sides there's no street sign. How could I designate it? (Laughter.) COMMISSIONER MOY: Give us an approximate boundary.
Well, I'm requesting because I think it's necessary for the Streets Department to make a study of every street in the City and to make certain that every corner is designated with a street sign.
If Reilly Harrison here from Fleet Management, can we get a global positioning monitor in Councilman Cohen's car and then -- (Laughter.)
NASA will always know where Councilman Cohen is. We do it right by the coordinates. I'm just trying the help out, Councilman.
Yeah, I'd be prepared to do that, but I'm fearful that Councilman Nutter has a side motive. He wants to keep me away from other issues and have me spend my time designating the streets. (Laughter.)
Were I elected to do that, Councilman Nutter, I would be very pleased to do it. But I would very much like to request from the Streets Department a list of all the street corners that are not designated and would like a reply from you with respect to that respect. With respect to the signs that you've 1422 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 designated on the Avenue of the Arts on Broad Street, only real young people like Councilman Nutter can probably read the signs because what you've done is they've made them artistic but illegible to people maybe two or three years older than Councilman Nutter and thereafter. (Laughter.)
And I would like to suggest that I believe there can be signs that are both artistic and legible and would like to ask the Department to consider that in developing the next set of signs. COMMISSIONER MOY: Okay.
Yes, we'll get you for the next go-round. Councilman Rizzo is next, but we have a follow-up question.
Thank you. I just have one additional sign request. I call these signs the of wheel of fortune signs. They're the ones where one or two or three of the letters in the sign is faded as a result rain and elements. 1423 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 It's like, can buy a vowel so I can figure out what sign it is. I asked this maybe last year or the year before. We had a contract with somebody to do that, and I don't know if there was a warranty or what was there, but in a relatively short period of time certain letters on certain signs faded off. I thought originally it was vandalism where people were climbing up the pole and spray-painting green just to confuse people. But the more and more I looked at it, it's clear that certain of the white letters had faded as a result of rain or other elements. Is there some way we can also get a report on whether we're try to get a reimbursement or these signs are being replaced at the contractor's cost because of a defect in the sign?
Councilman Kenney, I believe you were referring to Harbison and Aramingo Avenue which you raised a question about last year. If I recollect our answer at that time, those signs that we have up there, sir, are over ten years old. The life expectancy of --
To me, they look like the newer design size-wise. 1424 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005
What you're calling a newer design sign, sir, has been installed since 1973 that I'm aware of.
I've lived in the City my whole life. I'm 41. I've seen all kinds of different signs from the white ones with the black letters on forward. The signs that I'm talking about are not 27 years old.
No. The type of sign that you're talking about, what we call the metro, signs, Councilman, some of them -- we started that program over 27 years with the metro street name signs. The signs that were installed up on Aramingo and Harbison, the ones that we looked at specifically did not have any paperwork behind them still in our records. So they were exceeding the seven-year life expectancy of the engineer grade material that used for that type of sign. Currently, the sign that we're using now is a high intensity material which we expect to last about ten years, and they are done in-house. 1425 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005
And this is just anecdotal, just my own personal experience. Growing up, I never remember seeing letters off signs. They were the light color, the white background black letter sign and I've never seen any faded -- I've never seen any of the individual letters off. To me -- well, maybe that's the answer, I don't know. But it's not just Harbison Avenue, it's other streets throughout the City where you see an occasional letter or two that are gone from the sign. And it just -- I mean, maybe there are 27 years old, but they look awful new.
No, the older ones that you were talking, they were paint; they were not a particular material that were stuck on there, but they did not have the reflectivity at night that the current signs do.
So what you're saying for the record is that there's no problem with any of the newer signs that have been 1426 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 installed, they're just fine?
No, Councilman. I agree with you that the lettering does fade over time and it fades depending on the direction that the sign is facing. A sign that is -- a two-sign bracket which one sign facing toward the South and one facing to the north, the sign on the south side will fade quicker, deteriorate quicker than the sign on north side.
Is there some process we can employ to paint them or to do something? Is there reflective paint that's available that would keep this from happening, or we got to keep buying these signs an replacing them?
Even the reflective paint, the parking signs that we use do have some reflectivity and they're a painted sign and they also fade over time.
Thank you, Madam 1427 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 Chair. Commissioner Moy, first of all, I thank you. We received quite a few letters, and I think I've forwarded a few of them to you, for the relief, some relief to the traffic congestion on Germantown Avenue so that went over big I wanted to thank Charlie Trainor for all of the effort that went in resolving that problem. Councilman Nutter in jest was talking about a global positioning system. And I know that you know that the City is about to install a new communications system that's costing well over $50 million, and I see that you requested or it's been proposed to you a global positioning system for the Sanitation Division, and I'd like to know why we need a global positioning system. I think I know we have one customer that might be able to use it, but I'd like to know with this state-of-the-art, and I don't think there's going to be a finer two-way radio system in the world after this is installed and that's not exaggerated, that need a global positioning system to keep track of your employees when they have two-way radios in their trucks and most of the 1428 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 time employees are always behind the wheel. So I don't understand the pilot program and expense of $150,000 for global positioning for sanitation vehicles. COMMISSIONER MOY: I believe a request had been made in the Capital program for global positioning on a pilot basis there, Councilman. I don't think that that was retained in that budget, if I'm not mistaken. But the point had been to try to use this as a pilot to see if it would work on certain kinds of vehicles and whether it would be worth while expanding into the fleet. It was only a small number, maybe we would start with buck trucks or things like that, the ones that were most important to us in terms of communications. Eventually there are things that as we get into more acceptance of GPS that when we go into snow routes and things like that, this kind of equipment may become more commonplace. I think there was a number of jurisdictions that are experimenting with GPS throughout the country.
But, again, where you have this very fine communications system that would be utilized by the Streets Department, so I 1429 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 don't personally see the needs for both. And since it's been knocked out of the -- it has been knocked out of the budget. COMMISSIONER MOY: That's right. That's my understanding.
I hope stays out because I don't really personally see a need for it. If you do, that's fine. My next question is I know that there was a resolution, I'm not sure exactly what it was, but lots of municipalities throughout the country have adopted a rigid container policy on trash being put out at the curb by businesses and residents in a trash can with lid. When I ride through the City, especially in Center City, I see trash just strewn all over the place. People just though plastic bags out at the curb, dogs get in, animals get into these bags, and it just seems to me that trash day is the day that we get our streets the dirtiest where thre's just things just blowing all over the place. Have we ever done a pilot or do we plan to do anything? Have you ever considered a rigid container regulation like any other municipalities or boroughs have? 1430 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005
Councilman, in fact, we have tested a rigid container in parts of the City. A few years back, we installed what we call Toter Containers, that's a company that made them, and tested in Mt. Airy and part of Roxborough. The intent of this program was to see whether we could minimize injuries as well as possibly pick up our speed and reduce our crew size. The container that the City provided to residents was 101-gallon container, and we had a truck with a specially outfitted lift that was to come in, collect the container, the truck did the lifting and tipped the container. That process is a lot slower. And also, we found in terms of our citizen use, because of our particular City's culture with regard to trash allowances is that that container was not enough for our citizens to put all of their materials in. In fact, even with a large container, we still get other trash in bags or other cans alongside the large container that we provided. Council has in the past talked having an ordinance which would require that all residences and businesses that have City collection would have a firm container, even if it 1431 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 was a 32-gallon normal size container that you could buy at a Home Depot or Sears or a hardware store. I think, if remember some of the discussion, there was concern that rigid containers don't necessarily meet needs or don't necessarily fit into the life styles of many of our citizens because they require storage space either outside or inside a house. They do take up a significant amount of space and everybody doesn't have that provided to them. There is a lifting requirement that some households cannot handle with regard to carrying a can versus carrying a bag. There's a different dynamic to carrying a can. There is also a cost feature. For many property owners buying cans from a hardware store seems more cost prohibitive because there is an up-front cost that is fairly significant when you compare that to buying a box of bags as well as the fact that in many areas of our City, most areas of our City, cans do get stolen which is why people put their addresses on them and sometimes put their name. However, they still, you know -- I've seen people walking on not the right block with a can going someplace else. 1432 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 Because of that, I think our citizens presently have a choice about how they set their trash out, and we go with whatever choice they have, whether it be bags or cans. In terms of our collection practices, and around the country this has been proven, the fastest way of collecting trash is rear-loading or side-loading with bags. Cans will always slow the process down. However, in the communities where people choose to use cans, it is not a problem. By and large we find that it is generally on a community-by-community basis that people either select cans or not select cans based upon how they feel the cans will be received in their community and their ability or desire to have them in their household.
Commissioner, to follow up on Councilman Kenney's question about ditches, my personal observation is that the City of Philadelphia is one of the bigger violators of the entire ditch restoration process. I know just 1433 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 this morning, I observed a ditch that was dug by PGW and not backfilled properly, just the earth through back in. I noticed that they drilled holes in the entire intersection many weeks ago, did not repair those holes where water can flow and undermine the street. I know the Water Department is, again, a violator of a proper restoration of a ditch. I don't think there's anything worse than a rainy dark night that a person in their vehicle has to run across one of these ditches, so I think that the utility companies, the gas company, the Water Department, really need to get their act together in filling these holes properly. And just to add to that, when the Streets Department or any other agency lends out a contract, I think where some of the contractors pick up a few dollars is where in the contract it says that they're supposed to put barricades up with flashing light, that they're supposed at the ends of the day put covering plates down to properly protect some of these excavations; they don't do that. And in my opinion, there's nobody telling them to do that. So I don't know what 1434 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 kind of project management we have, but I can tell you that today if in a late-model automobile one of our constituents hits one of these ditches, they're going to create a lot of damage to their vehicle. And I know Risk Management, every year it's one of my pet questions, Risk Management tells me that there's supposedly a committee of the utility companies, the water, gas, etc., that have been trying to address this problem, and I have seen no improvement in that situation throughout the City. Example: Hillcrest Avenue, a major project. Every week after a rain storm I had to personally call to make sure that the contractor went back there to backfill that situation, and again, it's just something that I haven't seen any progress or haven't seen any improvement in how we leave the streets after we do work on them. Thank you, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER MOY: Okay, thank you, Councilman.
Question, Commissioner or Miss Tolson. We have some residential blocks, not a lot, but some who want 1435 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 cans. Now, if they can get trash cans, will the City empty them? The residential block, not a commercial corridor.
Councilwoman, I want to offer an answer cautiously. With our block captain program, which I think is a wonderful program that I hope can spread throughout the City --
We do have an adopt-a-basket program, and we actually provide cans to citizens, to our block captains that want them. Usually it's because these blocks have lots of children on the block, they may have a mom-and-pop store on the corner, they may have a school nearby, and they feel this would help them take care of their litter problem. What we really suggest to people with their cans is that they don't use a City container, a wire basket, because what eventually happens is the baskets become magnet for trash. Citizens, when they find out the City has given a basket or there's one that's provided out there, as they see it collected will then place their household trash in them on a 1436 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 regular basis. This is a problem that we have on commercial corridors and corridors that abut residential blocks or even apartment houses or just a few houses in a commercial area. What we suggest to people is instead take, you know, a little can that you get from a hardware store, from a supermarket, and then as you empty it, put it with your household trash and we'll get that on the once-a-week collection schedule. However, any time that we've ever gone in, tried to service cans, the cans are always abused. Citizens will put out, you know, smelly fish debris, you know, crabs when they have them in the summertime, household trash that they don't want to keep in for a long period of time, and ultimately we have people who get turned off with regard to having cans and then they're asking that it be removed. What we found that has works best is when citizens put out a normal-looking household container and their neighborhoods tend to respect that a little bit better with regard to abusing it.
But I think also that once 1437 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 we start to move with enforcing our litter can law on the stores that sell take-out food that we should see a little bit of relief for some of our blocks, our residential blocks, and it should get a little bit better for them.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner, let me go back to a topic that you covered earlier. With regard to street resurfacing and potential or alleged curb damage, we've had a number of conversations about that, but one of your answers intrigued me. When the job is -- I think usually there's a posting that goes up because, obviously, you want people to move their cars, so there is some level of advance notice, maybe three or four days. Do we put out, I guess, kind of a dear citizen, dear neighbor, this is what we're doing in your block, we're going to resurface it, we expect the job to the start on X date, finish on Y date. The contractor is so and so. This is their contact phone number, and the City inspector on this job is Mr. or Ms. 1438 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 Williams, Jones, whoever, whatever their name is, with a phone number for that person to contact them so that they can tell that person either at the site or know who to go to at the site for these curb damage issues? Do we provide that information up front? COMMISSIONER MOY: I'm told on our resurfacing jobs we do stuff mailboxes with a good deal of the information that you just outlined. I think we need to check and make sure it does all of the things that you suggested. I think we tell them that we're coming in with milling and resurfacing and giving them a point of contact. I'm not sure it addresses curb specifically, but we do have some kind of an overall alert to the residents to --
Did you say when the City is doing that work? COMMISSIONER MOY: When the City is doing it.
What about the private contractors? COMMISSIONER MOY: It goes in before the milling, which is always private contractor, 1439 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 so yes, we do it.
Can you get us a copy of that notice or a sample one that has actually gone out? COMMISSIONER MOY: Certainly.
Let's talk about street lights. How do you measure -- what's the proper terminology, I guess, for the measurement of light or illumination that comes out of the bulbs? Is it lumens, is it wattage? COMMISSIONER MOY: Joe Doyle can probably answer that better.
I'm sorry, Councilman, would you ask that question again? I was moving up here.
What's the technical term for the measurement by however you measure it for light that comes out of a light fixture, is it lumens, is it illumination, what's the technical term?
There's a couple different terms. Probably the one that we would be most familiar with would be footcandles, that would be the measurement of light as it actually falls on 1440 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 the surface that's being illuminated.
Okay. Is that then called footcandle power or footcandle --
Footcandles is a number relatively low 1, 2, 3 footcandles is sort of a typically roadway lighting situation.
So what's the footcandles for an average city street in the City?
That's a good question. It varies. The footcandle reading on the street is a function of a number of factors. One is the total output of the light, what the mounting height of the light is, how far apart the lights are, trees, other things. Probably in the range of a quarter to a half footcandle very, very broad average would be the number.
All right. So let's say, for instance, in an average block in West Philadelphia, 55 houses on the block, parking on both sides of the street, travel lanes in each direction, usually three no more than four cobra street lights on one side of the street, what's the footcandle reading on that block? 1441 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005
Quarter to a half footcandle, okay. I notice in the Commissioner's testimony that the department has funds for streetscape maintenance for the Avenue of the Arts; is that correct? COMMISSIONER MOY: Yes.
And what is that for? COMMISSIONER MOY: It basically reimburses the series of contractors that the Avenue of the Arts hires to take care of the streetscape kinds of things, the sidewalk appurtenances there, I think the flower plantings through the different seasons and I think restoring some of the pots that have been changing over some of the street furniture down this.
I'm sorry, I got lost somewhere. Who are we paying? COMMISSIONER MOY: We're paying Avenue 1442 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 of the Arts, Incorporated, which is the nonprofit agency that's administering work along the Avenue of the Arts.
And why are we paying for this? COMMISSIONER MOY: Because it was in agreement with the Mayor to fund the maintenance there.
How long? COMMISSIONER MOY: There's a contract which is a yearly contract.
How long do you anticipate that we're going to pay this? COMMISSIONER MOY: Pardon me?
How long do you anticipate we're going to pay this? COMMISSIONER MOY: It's an annual contract that is recurring.
Do we have contracts of this same type in other parts of City? Is that maintenance contract for streetscape? 1443 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 COMMISSIONER MOY: I don't think we have -- if we have any, we certainly don't have many, Councilman.
What's the footcandle reading on the Avenue of the Arts?
Four to five. What's the footcandle Walnut Street between Broad and 16th.
About the same range, four to five footcandles, perhaps a little bit less.
And the reason for this seemingly great disparity between those areas and the average neighborhood in Philadelphia is what?
They were designed at different times and for different reasons. The design that was finally adopted for South Broad Street looked at having a relatively high light level with a high frequency of poles. As you're probably aware, South Broad Street has street 1444 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 light poles that are probably 50 to 75 feet apart. That's overall at least twice the density of the pole locations that we're used to seeing on residential streets.
I understand that, but we're talking about light power now. So is more light better than less light for pedestrians and other people who are out and about?
Well, you can have a street that's overly lit and creates a glare problem.
I think you can make the argument for that situation it might be considered underlit.
Well, you're the 1445 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 street lighting technical person, right?
Okay. If you had your choice, would you rather walk down a street quarter to a half or one that had four to five.
Okay. And we don't have any of these similar contracts anywhere else pretty much in the City? If we did, they'd probably pop right off the top of your head, right, the maintenance contracts we talked about earlier?
I'm sorry, Councilman. The streetscape maintenance cost was not related to lighting that I'm aware of. That's for other functions.
I didn't make any connection between the two. I'm back to a different question.
Oh, I'm sorry. The only contract that we have for maintenance of street lighting is what we presently have in place with PECO Energy, and they provide a service for replacing defective lights that are out of 1446 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 service.
Do we have -- is there any plan or program anticipated to get the footcandle power up in our residential neighborhoods to some higher, brighter, and potentially safer level?
Right now, we have -- our first efforts have been to replace the older equipment with better lighting to improve that number. As far as the density of lighting, that is not something that we have any large-scale program underway.
Okay. I know the buzzer has buzzed on me a while ago. I'll come back to this particular area. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner, I was struck by the response to Councilman Nutter's question regarding Philadelphia's ranking with regards to recycling. My notes indicate that Philadelphia ranks 1447 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 number 9? COMMISSIONER MOY: That's correct.
Could you please for the record provide me as well the background data on the other cities, who they are and the ranking, so that I can look to see what they are doing that Philadelphia may or may not be doing? And then secondly, follow-up on the recycling education activities happening in the Overbrook Cluster, I'm unclear on what that is, what that means. So provide to me, preferably by the end of this month because the School District comes before us next month, a program description, what those activities that are happening in the Overbrook Cluster. COMMISSIONER MOY: We'll be happy to do that, Councilwoman.
Please provide the name of the point person on your staff for the recycling effort. COMMISSIONER MOY: Steve Tilney.
Steve? COMMISSIONER MOY: Yes, Steve Tilney who was here is our interim recycling coordinator. 1448 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005
You're welcome. Councilman Kenney, did you want to be recognized?
Is Councilwoman Miller still in the room? (No response.)
Are tires being recycled? Or how are they disposed of, is it through recycling or other forms of disposal?
Yes, tires are moved to a separate facility, they are not trashed.
Tires go to the a facility that crumbs them, chips them up, and sells it to recycling firms to power companies and the like.
I'm sorry, I'm 1449 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 unable to hear you.
The tires that the City collects goes to a firm that chips the tires up into very small pieces or crumbs the tires. That recycler then takes the materials an sells it to firms that use recycled rubber or to power companies that use it as an alternative fuel to power their plants.
No. However, the rate that the City pays actually is fairly good compared to a number of cities around the country. Our cost is approximately 55 cents a tire. There are some cities that are paying as much as $1.50 a tire for disposal. We pay by ton, but I'm breaking that per tire cost for you.
Whose responsibility is it to pick up the tires that are on pavements or on streets when they're dumped there?
That is the responsibility of the Streets Department. Someone asked a question about how they should be properly identified, and through a number of mechanisms. 1450 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 We certainly appreciate calls that come from citizens to identify when they set out the materials. However, in Philadelphia -- I should also say that we also identify them when our supervisors are on the street and they see them, they identify them as well and then they're picked up by a separate fleet of vehicles that are trash compactors, however, when they go to work, the only thing that put on their trucks is trash. They're not allowed to take tires with the trash. In Philadelphia we have a big problem, however, with tires that are thrown out on the street after they have been legally dropped off with an auto shop or garage or something like that. When you go in and buy new tires, the vendor receives your old tire, in fact, charges you a fee for it that's allowed by the State, charges you a small fee and the tire is then supposed to be properly recycled. What many of these vendors do, however, is they receive the tire, they receive the fee, and at some later date, the tires end up either in a pile someplace near the auto shop, and that's where many of our tires come from, near a small garage; or some 1451 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 vendors will go as far as ringing fire hydrant in the neighborhood and just spreading them around the neighborhoods. We had that problem in South Philadelphia last summer. It was a very big problem. You don't have household with 20, 30 tires at one time. These are coming from unscrupulous vendors who are taking money for proper disposal and then they are dumping the tires out, in their mind, for free on the street.
Does the City have some kind of campaign against that form of -- it's an illegal dumping isn't it?
It surely is short-dumping. It's very difficult to check. It makes our collection process more difficult because you can, in fact, find tires at any location. It might be leaning against a house, it might be thrown against a curb, on a sidewalk, anyplace other than just the collection site where trash might be normally set out. So the system is challenged in that way. We do have responsibility to get it, which is why we have the separate complements of trucks that goes out and collect them. Right now, because there's no individual 1452 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 market, per se, for tires which would encourage, say, scavengers to get it or anybody else to get it, tires wind up staying on the street for the City to get. What we have done in the past and what we plan to do this year is to have a tire roundup. It's a program that we started approximately four to five years ago. And through this program, we work with block captains, boy scout troops, girl scout troops, and many nonprofit neighborhood organizations around the City, and it has in the past been a public-private citizen cooperative effort. An by that, I mean in some years we have had citizens collecting the tires. The City receives the tires, properly disposes of it, and we've actually had some generous members of our private sector who have funded a bounty for those tires. In the absence of private sector funding the bounties, the City has funded the bounties. We have paid as much as 50 cents per tire for citizens to bring those tires to us. We've supported that program and encouraged it because what it does is it eases the collection system for us. We don't have to hunt for tires. It helps 1453 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 the community groups because they get to clean their communities up. It helps them also from the standpoint of when they are funded 50 cents per tire, they're allowed to collect $250, $500 in moneys for the communities that they then funnel back into community programs such as troops for children in the community, buying trees, buying planters, buying brooms, shovels, and cleaning equipment, whatever is appropriate for that community group. That program will happen again this year in July and August.
Does the City have any power to check the records of these private garages or repair shops? Because they generally charge $5 if you buy a tire from them and they ask you do you want your old tire disposed of, the charge is frequently $5, it may be higher, it may be lower in a few cases. Does the City have any power to check their records? Do we have any supervision over these tire shops.
Not from that standpoint, I don't believe. The manifest system for tires does leave some room for improvement. Unlike, say, some hazardous waste, there's no requirement 1454 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 that's enforced that requires vendors who receive old tires to document and state exactly where each of those tires wind up.
Who they got it from, how many, and who they send it to?
So that we can check with who they send it to whether they received them or not?
Right. There's no strong system in place for that right now, and it probably would require some State legislation, maybe possibly City legislation as well.
In terms of managing tire disposal statewide, yes. Because given that our borders are so, you know --
Along Lindley Avenue, between Bellfield and Old Stenton Avenue, just before Lindley becomes Logan, there's one garage there and there's almost every day a heap of tires that keeps getting bigger and bigger, 1455 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 about 100 yards from the shop as well as right across the street where there's a park.
It's always there. I saw a group of people today trying to clean up near the park side, and that may be one of the volunteer groups that you referred to.
I think the bigger issue there is the fact that, and you're kind of I guess supporting what I said earlier, is that close to a number of garages you're going to find short dumps where they probably collect their tires in a day and then at night before they go home or on the weekends when nobody's looking, they're going to go out and dump the tires. Tires don't carry identifying marks, they're not required, so it's difficult to trace where tires come from.
Neighbors in the area are convinced that comes from this garage on the corner of 20th Street and Lindley Avenue because the tires not on the park side but on the garage side appear about 50 yards from the garage shop right underneath the bridge overpass.
They're probably right and 1456 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 I'll work with the Police Department to keep an eye on this location to see if we can try to determine who's short-dumping there and to put a stop to it.
All right, thank you. Now, could I now go onto recycling? How much money does the City itself put into the recycling budget? I calculate in this budget that we're dealing with that the figure is $900,000 of City money out of the budget of about close to $150 million for the Streets Department. Am I wrong? And tell me if I am by how much.
Councilman, that number's a little off. Substantially, there's a lot more that we spend. I can give you the exact number, but just with our operations and our administration, not including processing costs, things like that, the number's closer to 4.5 million.
And that's State-City money. 1457 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005
That supports on-street collections and the planning and program staff.
And then there's the 5 million additional from the State.
The State grant money can vary year by year, but, surely, yes. State grant money would be on top of that.
Would I be able to get from you, say, in the course of this week, a list of all of the City monies and where it's located in the budget?
Because I have trouble seeing anything beyond the $900,000. What 1458 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 I see is million altogether for recycling, of which 4.1 comes from the State grant.
No, all right. If you could work out just the recycling budget for me.
And does that State grant, is that a continuing grant or is that a grant -- could you compare it with State grants in the last, say, two or three years before this current year that we're dealing with?
The pilot program that exists now, do you know what the recycling residential rate was when we had once a week collection? Didn't we have once a week collection throughout the whole City at one point in time?
We had once-a-week at the start of the program ten years ago. And in an effort to try to move to collections throughout the entire City, we dropped once-a-week collections and plastics and moved to every-other-week collections through the entire 1459 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 City.
Now, I missed what you said just before you said, "We moved to twice-a-week collection." Said ten years ago we started once-a-week collection and then when we got to the point of covering the whole City, then I missed something you said, and then you said we went on to twice a week.
We had once a week collection a portion of the city when program started.
Right. Did we ever have -- was there ever a time when we had once a week throughout the whole City.
Never. What was the closest approximation of the whole city? What portion of the City?
Two of our sanitation districts had -- two of our six sanitation districts had weekly, while the rest of City had nothing. We expanded over time to the entire City. Now everyone has every other week. Save for now the pilot program which we started last 1460 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 May.
I'm just not getting what you're -- Yes, I'll yield to Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. You said that when it was a pilot program you collected both newspapers and plastics? What did you say?
What did you say you collected on the pilot before you went to every other week.
When we first started the program and after the pilot when the determination was made that we were going to do recycling in the City, we collected newspaper, plastic, glass and metals.
Now we don't collect 1461 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 plastic. In an effort to move from just having collections in two of the six sanitation areas and to have collections throughout the entire City, we've dropped plastics, which are very costly to collect, and we dropped every other week service in those to areas. And we now have any other week through the entire City except for the two areas that we're piloting or testing weekly collections.
Is it the same type of system? How does it go in the municipal buildings?
In municipal buildings we have added -- I guess we added in in '95 mixed paper. City Hall, you're collecting all of those mixed papers.
Do we have a mandatory system within municipal government? 1462 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005
Do we have a mandatory system within municipal government?
Yes. City Hall has been recycling now for maybe eight years. There was a big step-up in that effort in the last couple of years.
I know we have it, but I didn't know whether or not it was mandatory. And obviously, because other people take out our trash, we don't do it directly. Then my last follow-up, and I'll yield back to Councilman Cohen is, has any attempt to put into place an educational program in public schools on recycling? Because it would be a great part of an environmental class schedule.
Excuse me, Councilwoman. For the last 13 years that I've been with the recycling office, we've consistently tried to make outreach efforts into the schools. We've tried to step up those efforts over the last couple years, and we also have in plan for the next few years to continue our outreach efforts into the public school system. I will say that there are not as 1463 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 forthcoming as we'd like them to be. If we can get the schools to start notifying us about visits that they'd like, classroom educational programs that they'd like to have take place at specific schools, we'll try to put them into accomodation schedule.
Excuse me, excuse me. I don't believe you identified yourself So that the record would reflect who is speaking.
I'm sorry. My name is Steven Tilney, and I'm the interim recycling coordinator and the recycling program administrator.
Has any effort been made to withdraw recycling from the Streets Department and to some other are or entity to focus more attention on it? Are there any plans to do recycling differently or on a major basis since it's becoming such a big area?
I could only say we're 1464 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005 fully supported where recycling is concerned within the City. We have some new initiatives that were taking place, for instance, an organic waste composting program which is just now being kicked off as a backyard composting program. We have some additional outreach into the school systems and we're continuing to do educational outreach in the general public and, again, trying to support the pilot program that's going on as well.
And finally, what about the replacement of the recycling coordinator? Where and when how is that search being conducted?
Out recycling coordinator left a few weeks ago. I think our intention is to do the proper search and find the best and most appropriate person for that position.
With respect to the recycling coordinator, when is it anticipated that there will be a real live full-time recycling coordinator? 1465 2/22/00, Operating Budget, Bill 000005
We have an interim coordinator right now who is quite familiar with the program and he's fulfilling all of those duties presently, so we're not -- there's no lapse in any services.
And he has the full authority of a recycling coordinator?
So that we can expect him to be performing as a recycling coordinator until such time as he is either permanently appointed or somebody else is permanently appointed?