Longview Partnership
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Longview, TX 75601
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News
5.1.08 - KLB Announces Award Recipients at Banquet
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Teresa Rau, Representative for Longview Partnership President Kelly Hall;
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Rick McKnight, East Texas Council of Governments;
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Ariel Brockwell, Longview High School;
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Jennifer Reigstad, Spring Hill High School;
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Travis Willadson, Pine Tree High School; and
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Bethany Baas, Christian Heritage School.
4.5.08 - McKinney's proposed automated recycling center is greener inside and out
Planners: Fully automated center, which would expand capacity, would be a first for Texas
12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, April 5, 2008
By JIM GETZ / The Dallas Morning News
jgetz@dallasnews.com
If plans for a new recycling center in McKinney go as planned, what goes into the building will be almost as green as what comes out of it.
City staff and executives at IESI, the city's solid waste contractor, are working on what they say will be the first fully automated recycling center in Texas built to the LEED standards of the U.S. Green Building Council.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system that awards certifications to buildings that satisfy criteria in areas such as water savings, energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality.
Under the estimated $5 million project, IESI would expand its current facility on land it already owns on Country Lane in southeast McKinney. The new facility would have a greater recycling capacity – 5,000 tons a month, up from the roughly 1,500 tons a month it handles now.
The added capacity would help the center offer its services to more customers, said John Gustafson, vice president of IESI's Texas region.
"Rowlett, Prosper, Melissa, sometimes even Colleyville stuff comes over to McKinney," he said. "It would be highly likely that more of that volume would come up to McKinney once we get this facility up and running."
The facility would also be more automated and could use magnets to separate certain metals, air to separate plastics, and screens to extract paper and fibrous material from other matter.
The increased automation could mean a reduction in the 30 employees who currently hand-sort materials, but employees also could be needed as more shifts are added to handle the increased load, Mr. Gustafson said.
McKinney would get half of the profits from the recycling, potentially about $100,000 a year, said Hal Cranor, city director of public works.
IESI wants the city to extend its exclusive waste-hauling contract with the city through 2017, so it can have a stable income needed to pay for the project. A final agreement could be considered by the McKinney City Council as early as May 6.
A similar facility is being looked at in Austin, where the city is planning to build a LEED-certified automated recycling center in about two years, said Jill Mayfield, spokeswoman for Austin's Solid Waste Department.
Around the country, there are a few other recycling facilities that are partially automated and built with some LEED elements, but apparently nothing to the extent of automation and certification planned by McKinney and Austin. Those facilities are in Keystone, Colo.; Vashon, Wash.; Whittier, Calif.; and Phoenix.
Mr. Gustafson said that building a LEED-certified facility will cost a little more upfront than a conventional building, but he expects to recoup that through lower transportation costs and, later, through higher energy efficiency. He also sees it as a way to educate others.
"So many could leave with some ideas of how they could treat their own home or business differently," he said.
3.26.08 - KLB Annual Banquet
Please join us for awards recognition, installation of Officers and Directors, lunch and door prizes! Save the date for KLB's Annual Banquet: Wednesday, April 30th, twelve o'clock, Pinecrest Country Club. The cost of lunch is $20, and seats must be purchased by April 16th. Invitations are going out next week. If you are not a member and would like to receive a luncheon invitation, please contact community@longviewtx.com.
3.18.08 - Help Finish Guthrie Creek Beautification Project
Many thanks to all of you who helped beautify the Guthrie flower bed on March 8th. It turned out to be an extremely productive day getting the rocks rearranged, the sage bush dug up, the soil tilled, the mulch spread, edging installed, roots dug, and flowers planted. So far it looks fantastic and passers-by can already see a major change. The job is almost done, but we will probably need one more workday to finish it. It would be best to get the rest of the plants in the ground as soon as possible before the rains stop and it gets hot, so please mark your calendars for Saturday, March 29th at 8:30 a.m. to meet at the site and help finish the job. Please bring your shovel(s) and your expertise.
All your efforts toward this project are greatly appreciated!
3.13.08 - Citywide Cleanup/Don't Mess with Texas Trash-off on April 5th
It's time to do a little spring cleaning! Make your group a clean-up group and register for the Citywide Cleanup on Saturday, April 5th. Cleanups will take place throughout Longview, and there will be a kick-off at the Longview Public Library from 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. The city will also accept tires and electronics for recycling. This event is designed to help keep Longview beautiful by reducing litter throughout our community. Trash bags will be provided to volunteers, so that they may clean the park, neighborhood or street of their choice.
If you would like to work on a park project please register as soon as possible, as this requires additional pre-planning. Volunteers may elect to help an elderly or disable resident amend code violations, but this activity is done by volunteering directly with the resident and is not sponsored by the City of Longview or Keep Longview Beautiful. Registration forms, cleanup report forms and additional information about tire/electronics recycling, may be found at http://www.ci.longview.tx.us/services/citywide_cleanup.html.
3.3.08 - Jacksonville Teaches Kids About Littering
Chiefs newest ‘Litter Ladies’
Jacksonville Progress
By Kelly Young
kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com
After numerous trips into the school district’s 21 first-grade classrooms by themselves, the Litter Ladies decided to recruit some big guns to their litter-fighting cause. Friday morning, local law enforcement officers joined the women’s efforts by entering Jacksonville’s four elementary schools to talk trash.
Chief Reece Daniel of the Jacksonville Police Department and Chief Marvin Acker of the Jacksonville Independent School District spoke to the children about the negative consequences of littering. Daniel visited the campuses of Joe Wright and East Side, while Acker conversed with children at West Side and Fred Douglass.
“Does everybody here like animals? Well animals get caught in litter all the time. Sometimes you’ll see birds with pieces of plastic around their neck and they can’t get out of it. So if you’re an animal lover like me, it’s very important that you don’t litter,” Daniel told the children. “It’s really important to the community that we take care of our garbage. You can make a decision for yourself not to litter. Someone has to start somewhere if we are going to fight this problem, and I think it should be us, right?”
Daniel said there are more than 1.25 billion pieces of litter along Texas highways e — most of which belongs to tobacco products and fast food wrappers. According to Daniel, there are enough cigarette butts littering Texas to bury Jacksonville under 20 feet of butts.
He also spoke about the legal penalty people can face if they are caught littering.
“Do you know that if a person gets caught throwing one cigarette butt on the street, it can cost them $500? If you take a 15-pound bag of trash and throw it on the ground instead of throwing it in the trash can, it can cost you $2,000 and six months in jail,” he said. “And if it gets much bigger than that, it can cost $4,000 and a year in jail. That’s how serious we feel about trash.”
Daniel said he is a big fan of the program, and he thinks first-grade is the perfect time to be teaching this curriculum.
“If you can impress on them at this age how important it is and show them how litter can be such a problem, then kids at this age can be great advocates for things like this,” Daniel said. “This is the first time I’ve been asked to do this, but I would love to do it every year. I think what these folks are doing, and what the schools are doing, is great.”
The Litter Ladies have received so much positive feedback, they now make two trips into the schools each semester. Sponsored by Keep Jacksonville Beautiful, a beautification committee funded mainly by donations made by citizens on their monthly water bill, the Litter Ladies use curriculum from Keep Texas Beautiful to teach the students about the damage that litter causes and the responsible way of dealing with one’s trash.
2.28.08 - City of Longview Holding Compost Seminar
The City of Longview will hold a compost seminar on March 15, 2008 at the City’s Compost Site located at 280 Hearne Road. The program will begin at 10:00 a.m and will conclude at approximately 12:00 p.m. The Compost Seminar will provide site tours, screening demonstrations, an overview of the composting process, and information from professional landscapers on the best method of using compost for gardens and yards. There is no charge for attending the Seminar and all Longview residents are invited.Longview’s Compost Site re-opened for public use in February of 2006 and since that time has experienced significant growth each year in terms of the number of Longview residents who have taken advantage of the facility. The Compost Site is open from 8:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Use of the Site is limited to City of Longview residential Solid Waste customers. For directions to the site, or additional information concerning the program, please call 903-236-3066.
2.27.08 - Save the Date - KLB Annual Banquet
It's that time again! Save the date for KLB's Annual Banquet: Wednesday, April 30th, twelve o'clock, Pinecrest Country Club. If you are not a member and would like to receive a luncheon invitation, please contact community@longviewtx.com.
2.27.08 - Grace Creek Waterway Cleanup A Success
Thank you to all of the 116 volunteers who came to our Grace Creek Waterway Cleanup, February 23, 2008. Over 200 volunteer hours were contributed at the cleanup, and 3,000+ pounds of litter were collected over the 3 miles of creek cleaned. Of the litter collected, approximately 300 pounds were recyclable. We hope everyone enjoyed the presentation on Longview's waterways. Special thanks to Chick-fil-A for donating lunch, Suddenlink Media for donating tv advertising and Lamar for donating billboards. Click here to see pictures from the Grace Creek Waterway Cleanup, and check back soon for information on the Great American Cleanup!
2.16.08 - Save the Date - Complete Guthrie Parkway Project, March 12th
It's time to finish up our project at Guthrie Parkway, and all that's left is the fun part! Let's plan to get together on Saturday, March 8th at 9:30 a.m., to cultivate and plant the raised bed at the parkway entrance on McCann Rd. Hopefully we will get the plants into the ground before all these nice spring rains are gone. If it happens to be pouring down rain that weekend, we will plan on the next weekend. So bring your favorite gardening tools and meet us there.
2.16.08 - Baytown: City Proposes Strict Litter Ordinance
By Kari Griffin
Baytown Sun
Baytown City Council members found little to their liking when they picked apart a proposed ordinance directed at litter.
At the request of the city manager, Health Department director Mike Lester and his team drew up the first draft of the proposed ordinance – one that makes it seem city officials aren’t requesting cleanliness from their citizens and business owners – they’re demanding it.
But Council members, unimpressed with the proposal in front of them Thursday, were reluctant to support outlawing litter at the expense of business owners.
“The overall intent is to endeavor to change the culture going forward,” city manager Garry Brumback said. “The intent of this is not to write a single ticket. This is designed so that people will be encouraged to put trash in an appropriate receptacle.”
The purpose of the proposed ordinance, (which is actually a compilation of a bits and pieces throughout the current code), is to make it known that a city of trash will not be tolerated.
Where the responsibility lies is what makes this draft different from the current ordinance.
Under the first draft of the proposed ordinance, owners or operators of commercial establishments would need to provide a minimum of two trashcans – more if necessary and remove all litter from the property at least once each day, (or clean-up as often as it’s needed).
Originally, they would also be required to keep a log as evidence of their compliance with the ordinance, but that part of the proposal was scratched.
“I’m glad the log was taken out,” Mayor Stephen DonCarlos said. “I thought that was somewhat ludicrous to be honest.”
Council agreed, but members requested multiple modifications to what was left of the proposed ordinance when it was presented.
The thought of asking every business to put two receptacles outside left District 6 Councilman Sammy Mahan with visions of trashcans blowing up and down Garth Road and North Main Street.
“I don’t want to put two garbage cans in front of my business,” Mahan said. “The wind comes in and they end up at Carver Elementary.”
Mahan said he knows where the city is going with this, but is afraid too many people will be affected in this effort to deal with a select few establishments with noticeable piles of trash on their lots.
The theory is that people are more likely to throw their trash in a waste receptacle if there’s one available in the parking lot. But District 5 Councilman Lynn Caskey said he has a problem with forcing businesses to supply trashcans so people can clean out their cars.
“Most people won’t carry trash from their car even if there is a trashcan available,” Caskey said.
And when the suggestion of trashcans along city streets was made as an answer to roadside litter, DonCarlos pointed out that “most of these folks driving along would not use a trash can if it was bolted to their vehicle.”
District 3 Councilman Brandon Capetillo wanted to know who would be held accountable for placing trash cans outside and cleaning up at the many strip centers around town where several businesses share a parking lot.
“Who are you going to ticket?” Capetillo asked.
He’s all-for putting an end to littering, Capetillo said, but he doesn’t believe community establishments should be punished on behalf of their patrons. It’s the citizens or visitors who stop by these places that need to change their mentality, and writing owners a ticket for trash on their property is not going to accomplish that, he said.
Citizens in the audience applauded when Capetillo said to the folks who thought this up, “you said it’s a tool. The tool I see right now is a sledgehammer.”
Just judging from the businesses she drives by on a regular basis, District 1 Councilwoman Lena Yepez estimated that about nine out of 10 businesses are out of compliance with the proposed ordinance. Some of these places, she said, have a growing problem with trash that continues grows with each passing day.
The owners know about the issue, but do nothing, she said.
Yepez, like her fellow Council members, thinks asking for a minimum of two trashcans, (especially in the case of “mom and pop” stores), is a bit much and would like to come up with a plan that will make businesses aware that their city is not trying to penalize them, just attempting to improve.
District 4 Councilman also Don Murray suggested that the city come up with something better.
“Let’s walk before we run,” Murray said.
When talk got around to the once-a-day cleaning rule, the question of sabotage came up.
Brumback said if passed, this ordinance would most likely be complaint-driven. But District 2 Councilman Scott Sheley pointed out that rivals and enemies could dump trash on each other’s lots and call in complaints to the Health Department.
“It would be nice to be able to run a business without looking out to see if some rubbish is in your parking lot,” Sheley said.
Council ended up rejecting most of the rules suggested in the proposed ordinance, instead agreeing on one trashcan, (or more if needed), instead of two and clean-ups each week instead of every day for the sale of being realistic. But the changes didn’t stop there.
Under the proposed ordinance, commercial waste must be transported or maintained within an approved container, fully enclosing the waste and screened from view from an opaque fence or wall that is at least one foot taller than the approved commercial waste container.
Companies without dumpsters would not be required to purchase one, therefore they would not need to conceal it. But Council members said it wasn’t feasible to require a four-sided barrier around the dumpsters even if businesses would be given six months after the ordinance passed to make the necessary changes.
The one part of the proposal Council did like was where it required customers to refrain from littering and pick up any litter they may have dropped, and outlawed people disturbing the contents of trashcans outside of homes of businesses.
Council agreed that there should be a rule addressing the new city recycling program, as this part of the proposed ordinance is does by prohibiting people from going through citizens’ litter bins.
This is one aspect of the proposed ordinance where Murray encourages city officials to “run before they walk,” he said.
1.29.08 - Save the Date: Citywide Cleanup on Saturday, April 5th
Volunteers needed to clean the street, neighborhood, or park of their choice, or help with a special project such as assisting an elderly/disabled residents with code violations. An event kick-off will be held at the Longview Public Library, where volunteers may register, be entered for door prizes, and receive supplies and refreshments. The day will also include electronics recycling and tire recycling from 8a.m. - Noon at the Longview Public Library. Check back later for additional information.
1.02.08 - City hopes to cut landfill waste to nothing
Plan being drafted sets goal of reducing, reusing, recycling and composting all trash by 2040.
By Sarah Coppola
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The City of Austin has launched an effort to try to dramatically reduce garbage and boost reuse and recycling within a generation.
The city has hired a California firm, Gary Liss & Associates, to spend six months writing a zero-waste plan: a long-term strategy to reduce to zero the amount of garbage sent to landfills by reusing, recycling and composting materials instead.
Several cities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, and countries now have or are writing zero-waste plans. This will be Austin's first long-term solid waste plan since 1992.
Zero-waste plans tend to take a holistic view of trash reduction, focusing not just on recycling but on ways to prevent garbage from getting to landfills in the first place.
For example, a zero-waste plan might recommend increasing garbage rates to penalize customers who produce the most trash or offer incentives to encourage businesses to take back and reuse their packaging and products.
The goal of Austin's plan will be to reduce the garbage sent to landfills by 20 percent per capita by 2012 and to achieve zero waste — an international standard set by the U.N. Environmental Accord — by 2040.
"With the focus on global warming in the past few years, more communities seem to feel comfortable adopting the zero waste goal," said Gary Liss, who has written zero-waste plans for cities such as Palo Alto and Oakland, Calif. "These plans could dramatically affect climate change by reducing the methane from landfills and changing the flow of materials through the economy."
Austin diverts about 30 percent of its residential garbage from landfills and to recycling and reuse programs, the second-best diversion rate in the state, city Solid Waste Services Director Willie Rhodes said. Other cities have achieved rates as high as 70 percent, Liss said.
In addition to writing a zero-waste plan, Austin will take a big step toward boosting recycling with the opening of a single-stream recycling facility in Southeast Austin in 2008 or 2009, Rhodes said.
That program will let homeowners place various recyclable materials in one big curbside bin rather than having to sort them.
Gerry Acuna, chairman of the city's Solid Waste Advisory Commission, said Austin does a good job of selling recyclable materials such as paper, aluminum and plastic to businesses to turn into new products.
Acuna said he hopes Liss' plan will explore how the city can sell more of those materials.
The plan should also suggest ways to compel more businesses, schools and churches to recycle and to recruit more companies to Austin that make use of recycled materials, said J.D. Porter, a commission member who owns a computer recycling business.
"You want to have businesses that want recycled materials and don't just look at them as something that can be baled and exported," Porter said. "The goal ought to be building up businesses locally that use these materials."
There is also room to improve Austin's recycling program for apartment dwellers, commission member Casey Walker said. Only multifamily properties that have 100 units or more are required to provide recycling containers.
Commission member Rick Cofer said he'd also like to see Austin add a pickup program for composted materials, similar to one in San Francisco.
San Francisco has one of the most aggressive zero-waste plans in the country, Liss said.
Among other initiatives, the city has banned plastic foam takeout containers from restaurants, enacted curbside pickup for food scraps, banned petroleum-based plastic bags — a ban that Cofer said he has fought for in Austin— and increased its garbage rates to compel residents to produce as little trash as possible, he said.
12.26.07 - Christmas Tree Recycling
The City of Longview offers recycling for Christmas trees December 26, 2007 through Saturday, January 12, 2008. Residents are encouraged to deliver Christmas trees to McWhorter Park, 1000 Toler Rd.; Stamper Park, 400 Fair St.; or the Compost Site, 280 Hearne Rd., during open hours. The purpose of the program is to divert Christmas trees from the landfill to be used for mulch or as fish habitats. Residents are asked to remove all decorations from trees. Flocked trees will not be accepted. Christmas trees left at the curb for regular trash pick-up WILL NOT be recycled.
Please contact Parks and Recreation at 903-237-1270 for more information about Christmas Tree Recycling.
12.20.07 - Save the Date!
As part of Keep Texas Beautiful's Texas Waterway Cleanup program, Keep Longview Beautiful will cleanup Lois Jackson Park on Saturday, February 23rd. Big thanks go to Chick-fil-A, which has generously offered to sponsor the event. Check back for additional information.
12.18.07 - KLB Wins Second Place in Lack's Trim-A-Tree Contest
Keep Longview Beautiful participated in the annual Lack's Trim-A-Tree contest, in which votes for favorite Christmas trees are cast with canned food donations. First and second graders at Spring Hill decorated the Christmas tree for KLB using light bulbs, popsicle sticks, CDs and other recycled materials. The tree was "green" and gorgeous!
12.08.07 - Beautification at Guthrie Creek
Keep Longview Beautiful and the City of Longview Parks Department, worked together Saturday to beautify the entrance of Guthrie Creek Parkway. Two new flower beds were created at the entrance into the park and another was cleaned up. Thirty crepe myrtles donated by Emerald Gardens were planted along the walking path. Thank you to everyone who participated!
