BENTON COUNTY -- The Benton County cleanup program may become a victim of its own success as officials review the event with an eye toward the future.
"We're going to have a meeting soon to discuss the cleanup from A to Z," County Judge Bob Clinard said last week. "The location, the staging, the on-site organization, we're going to discuss every aspect of that cleanup."
"It's been vastly successful," Clinard said. "It's valuable because you don't end up with all this stuff in landfills or in roadside ditches."
The April 26 event was the most successful yet in terms of the number of visitors recorded, and the amount of materials accepted for recycling, reuse or disposal. Preliminary information from Teresa Sidwell, the county's environmental coordinator, show 2,165 county residents participated, up from 1,487 for the spring 2013 cleanup. This year's event also saw greater volume of bulky waste, metal, documents for shredding, tires for recycling, batteries and electronics for recycling, items donated to Habitat for Humanity and other material.
"The cleanup was very successful," Sidwell said. "The number of visitors we had was way up, close to 1,000 more people. Each successive event has grown bigger and bigger, and it is causing some traffic issues."
The scope of the event has created problems with traffic congestion on Southwest 14th Street in front of the County Road Department location, and for some distance both east and west.
Convenience center
Web watch
Information about the Benton County Convenience Center and other recycling and reuse programs available through the Benton County Solid Waste District, along with contact information, directions to the site and hours of operation, can be found on the district's website: www.bcswd.com.
Wendy Cravens, director of the Benton County Solid Waste District, said the event, when coupled with other use of the county property and development along 14th Street may have outgrown space available.
"When we first started the cleanup we had all that room out there," Cravens said. "Now, they've built the Juvenile Detention Center, and that's taken up more than half the site. Traffic on (14th Street) is much heavier than it used to be. At one period, we heard cars were backed up to J Street. It's definitely a safety hazard for people trying to get to the event and for our volunteers working the location."
Cravens said most of the items disposed of at the cleanup event can also be taken to the Benton County Convenience Center, which operates at the district's location at 5702 Brookside Road. She said few people at the cleanup event were aware of the convenience center or the other services available through the district.
"We asked folks at the cleanup as we were working the line, and they didn't realize they had an opportunity to dispose of those things at the convenience center," Cravens said.
Sidwell said the convenience center, which the county helps subsidize, offers a solution to the congestion at the annual cleanup event.
"They can bring things every single Saturday and don't have to wait in a long line," she said.
Clinard said part of the review of the event will include the cost to the county to organize and operate the events. While the costs for the 2014 events aren't finalized, Sidwell reported cost of the 2011 spring cleanup at about $23,631 and the fall cleanup cost about $13,549. The 2012 spring cleanup cost about $22,355, and that year's fall event cost about $29,307. The 2013 spring cleanup cost about $24,307, and the fall cleanup that year cost about $17,094.
Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the county's Finance Committee, said the cost of the events will be considered during the county's budget process.
Allen said the events are very popular, but the county needs to find ways to make them more efficient.
"Certainly it will be discussed at budget time," Allen said. "It is an expense, and it's not a necessity. It's very popular with our citizens and I'd like to see us continue it if we can. I think we're definitely going to look at it to see if we can continue to fund it. We may look at reducing it from twice a year to once a year."
General News on 05/14/2014