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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1987-03-16 - City Commission Workshop Meeting MinutescI MAIL REPLY TO: P.O. BOX 25010 TAMARAC, FLORIDA 33320 5811 NORTHWEST 88TH AVENUE 0 TAMARAC, FLORIDA 33321 TELEPHONE (305) 722-5900 March 9, 1987 NOTICE OF CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING TAMARAC, FLORIDA Please be advised that there will be a City Council, Workshop Meeting on Monday, March 16, 1987 at 9:00 A.M. in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 5811 NW 88 Avenue, Tamarac, Florida. • The purpose of this Workshop Meeting concerns the Interlocal Agreement for Solid Waste Disposal Service. Thomas M. Henderson, Resource Recovery Project Director, will also be in attendance. The public is invited to attend. CEB/pm r] Cam - Carol E. Barbuto City Clerk AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER POLICY OF NONDISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF HANDICAPPED STATUS CITY OF TAMARAC CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1987 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Hart called this Workshop Meeting to Order on Monday, March 16, 1987 at 9:00 A.M. in the Council Chambers. R_OLL_GALL: Mayor Bernard Hart Vice Mayor Jack Stelzer Councilman Sydney M. Stein ABSENT & EXCUSED_ Councilwoman Helen Massaro Councilman Arthur H. Gottesman ALSO PRESENT: John P. Kelly, City Manager A. Bryant Applegate, City Attorney Yvonne E. Snyder, Secretary Mayor Hart announced the purpose of this meeting concerns the Interlocal Agreement for Solid Waste Disposal Service. City Manager John P. Kelly said in response to the Council's inquiries and concerns to the Resource Recovery prO posals, he invited Mr. Thomas Henderson, Resource Recovery Project Director, to give a demonstration in regards to the project and the impact it would have on the City. Mr. Henderson said with the help of the League of Cities and the Staff from the various Cities, the County had been able to put together a Resource Recovery Program which consisted of 3 Projects. He said two were research recovery projects and the third would be for a new sanitary land fill. He said the facility that would serve the Tamarac Community would be the north resource recovery project located on N. W. 48 Street, east of the Turnpike, west of Powerline Road adjacent to the existing waste management land zone. He said the second project, the south resource recovery project, would be located at the Intersection of 441 and State Road 84, which would serve the southern region of the County. He said the third project would be for a new sanitary landfill being built in the southwest region of the County located at US 27 between Sheridan Street and Sterling Road and would provide contingency and trash with quality services. Mr. Henderson defined the technology of mass burning by saying it involved taking the garbage and trash collected from homes and businesses to the plant and burning it in a wastekeep recovery furnace boiler system. He said the heat value that would be captured would be used for producing electricity which helps to defray the cost of capital and operating expenses of the facility. He said the residue that could not be reused, such as metal, etc., would be used as landfill ending up with 10% volume of what had been started. Mr. Henderson said the program had been developed for 7 to 10 years and the search for changes and development of the program had been very extensive involving consulting engineers, staff and officials from the Cities and Counties. He said these people had traveled around the world looking at and evaluating the options to provide a program that would benefit disposing of the waste for many years without any technological risks. 3/16/87 /yo 1 Mr. Henderson said landfill sights were becoming scarce and the County Commissioners, after looking at numerous solid waste disposal options, decided to proceed with mass burning because there are over 500 facilities operating at the present time worldwide, three of which are in Florida with 2 presently under construction and completed this year. Mr. Henderson said zoning on both sites have been approved and the State, Regional and local approval had been obtained with Federal Air permits expected to arrive in the next few weeks. Mr. Henderson said the revenue stream would evolve around electricity for which, at this particular time, South Florida has a big demand. He said Interconnection Agreements with the 2 Companies and F P & L have been approved by the Florida Public Service Commission and the contracts guaranteed full price of the electricity, which would be used to operate these projects. Mr. Henderson said the north project was being built by Waste Management, Inc., which is the largest waste Company in the world with 20 years experience and 100 units installed worldwide. He said the south projects would be built by Sigma Environmental Systems, which opened in 1975 and has 5 operating systems, 1 system in start up and 2 systems in construction. He said Sigma Environmental Systems had a project in Pinnelas County, which is the biggest project of its kind and, in the last 11 years, Sigma burnt over ten million tons of garbage. Mr. Henderson said it was important for the Cities using this burning to understand what contract obligations were expected in regards to the waste that was not burned. He said the City had the right to pass Ordinances, to have mandatory recycling or establish a voluntary program for whatever waste was left and there would be no minimum or maximum commitment the District or County would want in the Contract. He said the only commitment would be to get rid of whatever waste would accumulate in the next 20 years. He said the Vendors have been given 1 overall footer pay commitment, in other words, the County would commit to deliver so many tons to the Company and, if for some reason could not deliver that amount, the Company would get paid the amount as promised by the County. Mr. Henderson said the County put together a financial packet and, in 1984, the County sold 521 million dollars worth of Revenue Bonds which were put into an escrow account. He said during the validation process, the County went to the Courts and said, "At such time as we are ready to put this under construction, we want to be able to remarket these bonds as Industrial Development Bonds", which has been approved by the Local Courts and the Florida supreme Court. He said the Bonds were issued under the 1983 tax laws which were not impacted by the last 3 tax bills and would be remarketed this November. He said the County and Cities were not obligated to these Bonds. Mr. Henderson said the County also issued a 50 million dollar bond which would be taken out at the issuance of the Bonds for County taxes of the Development. He said since the Companies were previously owned facilities, they would be putting in over 100 million dollars of their own money for the project. He said the Engineers who would be building these facilities would be Russ Engineering for the south facilities and M. K. Ferguson for the north facilities. /yo 2 3/16/87 Mr. Henderson said the main obligation of each City would be to send the waste to the facilities and make arrangements to pay the tipping fees. He said most Cities already had a franchised hauler. He said the County would provide for the Administrative support, which would consist of 3 to 4 people at each facility. These people would be handling the billings and coordinating the facilities. He said the tipping fees, after development would be no higher than $70.00 and these fees would be fixed for 20 years unless there should be a need for expansion of the facilities and, if there should be need for expansion, the fees could not be increased any more than 15% without coming back to the Cities for their consent. Ed West, President of Agri -Post, Inc., said there were not many ways to get rid of waste and by burning waste, there would be a lot of non --burnable items involved. He said another way of getting rid of waste would be compost, which was a natural way of getting rid of waste and Agri -Post did it that way. He said in order to use any system, money would need to be spent and, if the right amount was spent, any system would work. He said to use a system at the lowest possible cost would benefit the Cities. Mr. West said his Company had not made an individual offer to the City of Tamarac because the amount of garbage that accumulated in Tamarac would not be cost efficient to Tamarac, however, if his Company could get an agreement from other Cities as well as Tamarac, Agri -Post could be the Compost Vendors. He said his Company made a proposal to Hollywood and in that proposal they agreed they would only obtain Hollywood's waste, which amounted to 80 thousand tons per year and a $40.00 per ton tipping fee. He said there were approximately 70 thousand extra tons of waste in neighboring communities such as Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Hallandale, Davie, Cooper City, etc., which, upon visiting these communities with the system, were interested in contracting together. He submitted an additional bid to the City of Hollywood with the figures of adjoining Cities using composting and the proposal quoted 150 thousand tons a year at a cost of $35.00 per ton. He said if other Cities joined the system and the tonnage would increase to 250 thousand tons per year, the fee would only be $30.00 per ton. Mr. West said the tipping fee cost was capulated to cover debt service operations, maintenance and a safety or contingency factor; therefore, the Agri-Post's charge covered the cost of operations of the facilities and Agri -Post would be making little or not profit from the tipping fee. Mr. West said his company has studied the marketing factor for three years and, after extensive research, this type of waste disposal had tremendous marketing value; therefore, his Company would be willing to share the revenues from the end products with the Cities. Mr. West said if a contract would be issued by his Company to the Cities, all that would be required by the Cities would be the commitment to give Agri -Post their waste, agree to a tipping fee, which would be proposed, and the assistance in site acquisition. He said his Company would take care of designing, building, financing, owning and operating the plant and taking all responsibility in dispensing the waste. Mr. West then showed slides of what Composting consisted of. Mr. West said the waste would be dumped into a dump popper to maintain cleanliness and described the pit as being a stainless steel lining with an oscillating, hand -type converter which moved the waste to an inclined rubber conveyer belt. The conveyer belt moved the waste to a shredder with the capacity to produce 66 tons per hour, reducing the size of the waste to 5 inches or less. Then the waste would come down a shute and up to another conveyer belt into a second shredder with the hammers set closer together to regrind the waste to an ideal size for composting. 3/16/87 3 /yo Mr. West said after coming out of the second grinder, aromatic bacteria would be spread onto the waste to stop the smell and to assure that decomposing would be more accurate. He said only a few items such as a large refrigerates, washer or dryer would be rejected at the bottom of the pit and would be picked up with a cherry picker with the scraps sold to a local scrap dealer. He said the rejected waste could be cut up and ground because the bacteria in the metal served as valuable fertilizer for soil. Mr. West said after the waste had been covered with aromatic bacteria, it would go through a shute and into a hopper which loads the waste onto trucks. The trucks would take the waste to the composting room and pile it into wind groves, which are long piles 12 feet high, 16 feet at the base and a repose angle of 45 degrees. He said decomposing waste would remain in the building for 21 days and each day probes were stuck into the pile to check for moisture and temperature content. He said the temperature of the piles rose up to 170 degrees fahrenheit, which is a form of pasturization and the heat was caused by bacteria. He said once the degrees lowered, a pile turner ran through the waste and blended the waste with waste compiled 2 weeks earlier or later and, after the 21 day period, the waste would be created into fertilizer. He said the waste would be put onto another conveyer belt and into another grinder with closer hammers to reduce the size of the waste to 1/4 inch in size, which would still be too big; therefore, the waste would go up another conveyer belt to a vibrating, cascading screen. He said by changing screens different size fertilizer could be produced with the waste going into bags or bulk. He said the buildings would be buffered looking and completely enclosed. Mayor Hart asked City Manager Kelly if a figure for home garbage waste had been submitted and Mr. Kelly replied no. Walter Falck, Member of the Broward League of Cities, said when he was Mayor of Tamarac, he had been shown the burning process 41 and a Resolution had been passed; however, there had not been any action on the process because the County would not approve the burning system. He said ten years later, the County wanted to use the process. He said the City had incidents with sludge and the facility on Copans Road was at its maximum capacity, therefore, needed additional land had been built. Mr. Falck said the League felt an Interlocal Agreement had been made and the technology and site selections would not be of the Leagues' concern. He said the League consulted Agri --Post and saw a presentation by the Company explaining the compost system. After investigating Agra. -Post, the League found no plants in operation since the plant in Jamacia had been closed. He said the League located a composting plant in the Netherlands and England and arrangements were made to go to the England plant for observation. Then, 10 days before the date, there had been a call saying the plant was not working. He said within the last six months, the Netherlands plant has been closed, therefore, compost had nothing to offer. He said he has visited the plants for mass burning and proof that the plants work and have been operating for some time, had been evident. Mayor Hart asked Mr. Falck what type of waste disposal the League would recommend and Mr. Falck said the League preferred mass burning because of the factual evidence of operation. 9 C/M Stein said the cost for operating fees needed to be negotiated further before signing the contract because he did not feel it was fair for a time limit to be given by the County. He said if the rest of the Cities did not go with the contract, the rates could be higher. He said he would prefer all the tonnage weighed, paying only for that weight. 4 3/16/87 Mr. Falck said there would be no way to know the tonnage of every City because 5 years from this date, the cost could change. He said it took 5 years to get the necessary approvals and papers for the mass burning system and to decide to change to another system could take years. V/M Stelzer asked if the profit for the Companies could be controlled and how many Cities have signed up for the mass burning system. IF Mr. Henderson replied to the question of the Cities by saying Lauderhill, N. Lauderdale, Margate, Lighthouse Point, plus uni.nceiporated areas had signed the contract and several other Cities had passed an Ordinance on first reading. He said the City Attorney would be responsible for any stipulations of the Ordinance. Mr. Henderson said while working with the League of Cities, since June, 1984, the County Commission approved mass burning and the package had been in process and there could be no way to delay the County's deadline of March 31 for all the contracts to be signed. V/M Stelzer asked if there would be any way to control the profits made by the Companies. Mr. Henderson said there were signed contracts, which have been supplied to City Manager Kelly and City Attorney Applegate, that had the service fees that would be paid by the Companies and the fees were figured from a net tipping fee basis and by combining the revenues of the project and all the expense of the project. He said a bid proposal had been requested by these Companies for the net difference and the Companies submitted bids from their level of profit based on the plant being built and how efficient they would run the plant. He said it would be impossible to give a profit figure on the Companies. V/M Stelzer asked if the people of the City requested to see the net profit of the Companies, would it be available and Mr. Henderson replied there were bid proposals that had been submitted and they were committed to follow. V/M Stelzer asked what Hollywood, Ft. Lauderdale and Sunrise decided to do and Mr. Henderson said Sunrise had not done anything, Ft. Lauderdale had a Workshop Meeting last week and wanted to review the contract further. He said Fort Lauderdale anticipated going along with the contract, and Hollywood wanted to take 35 to 45 days to look at the contract. He said a package had been put together that provided the service to the Cities at a reasonable cost on a guaranteed basis for 20 years. V/M Stelzer asked how much longer Waste Management could take the garbage and dump it and Mr. Henderson replied in 1994-95 there would be a problem with finding land for the landfill. V/M Stelzer asked if the City decided not to sign the contract at this time and decided to join the system in five to ten years, how much would the retroactive monthly service be. Mr. Henderson said the City could join at any time, however, the City would be forced to go to a facility that would best fit their-tonnageinstead of the facility of their choice, which could amount to an enormous amount of cost for transporting fees. He said the Research Recovery Board would be reevaluating the proposal in 2 to 3 months and, if there were not enough Cities to join the contract to justify the plans, there could be a scaling or a cut back on the facilities. 5 3/16/87 /yo Mayor Hart said he received several requests from other Cities to delay a decision on the date of March 31. He asked Mr. Henderson if there could be an extended date for the system and Mr. Henderson answered the County Commission said there would be no extensions given. Mayor Hart asked what would happen if only 5% of the Cities signed the contract by March 31 and Mr. Henderson said the County would have to decide if the project should be continued or if the project should be scaled. 41 Mayor Hart asked what the average family tonnage would be per year for residential and Mr. Henderson said it would depend on the area. Mayor Hart asked when the system would be in operation and Mr. Henderson replied 1990. Mayor Hart said while looking at the contract he had concerns with the clause stating there could be an increase in fees if there needed to be additional space and equipment for the project. Mr. Henderson said if there came a point where there needed to be additional room for waste and the Cities did not want to expand the system, the system would cut back the acceptance of waste. C/M Stein said on that point, the Cities that were already built out would not care if the system needed to be expanded and Mr. Henderson said that had been one of the reasons the County Commission wanted a member from each City to be on the Advisory Board. Jon Henning, City Attorney for the City of Sunrise, said Sunrise had not decided on the system because the biggest problem they were having had been how they would dispense the tipping fees to the Residents. 4 Mayor Hart asked what the cost would be charged to the Cities and Mr. Henderson answered $55.00. V/M Stelzer asked Jon Henning if Sunrise would benefit by holding their decision for 90 days and Mr. Henning said the benefit would be to get further education on the system. He said he did not expect an extension from the County and the concerns should not be on the operations but on the controlling of the fees. C/M Stein said the fees had not been decided and they could vary. He said if there was not another alternative, then before signing the contract, Council should completely understand what they were signing. Mr. Henderson said the Advisory Board that would be created by the City members would be the deciding party and would set the rates and plan the operations, not the County. Ed West, President of Agri -Post, Inc., said there was another alternative and the statement that there had been an investigation of his Company was false. He said Council could not get an education on the different systems in one day and suggested Council look into other alternatives before signing the contract. He said one composting plant should be placed in a IL community to see if it would be good for the future or the expanding Cities. Millan Knor, Governing Program Director of Hoyle, Tanner & Assoc., Inc., said in 1970, the City of Fort Lauderdale had 2 incinerators that were closed down because of the Clean Air Act and Broward County has grown since that time. 3/16/87 6 /Yo r f 11 Mr. Knor said the landfill space was becoming very scarce and, since the County took charge in 1982, the system of mass burning was a very complicated process. He said there have been sites already formed for the systems and, if a City decided not to join the County, they would have a tremendous problem of joining the County later because of costs. With no further discussion, Mayor Hart adjourned the meeting. CAROL E. BARBUTO CITY CLERK This public document was promulgated at a cost of �160.20 or $4.45 per copy to inform the general public and public officers and employees about recent opinions and considerations by the City Council of the City of Tamarac. 3/16/87 /yo VA I