HomeMy WebLinkAbout09.26.24 Manager's ReportJEFFERSON COUNTY, WA
SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 MANAGER’S REPORT
Staffing
The Division experienced the loss of its two senior equipment operators in August while the Operations
Coordinator suffered an injury that has kept him from operating equipment. The temporary closure of
the Quilcene facility on four Saturdays was avoided by substituting Roads division staff and the Solid
Waste Manager for missing/injured staff.
Two full time and one part time employees have been hired and one is training presently with the other
two new employees scheduled to start in early October.
Transfer Station Replacement Planning Process
Staff has completed its review of the work completed in coordination with the Solid Waste Facility Task
Force and facility siting analysis conducted internally and is ready to reengage with the Task Force. A
meeting date is scheduled for October 9.
Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events
The last two of four annual HHW collection events were held on September 9th in Quilcene and
September 21st in Port Hadlock.
The below data was collected at the Quilcene event which suggests that this event reaches south county
residents well, there is a need to encourage customers to come later during the event, and that we
should encourage Port Ludlow residents to attend this event instead of the Port Hadlock event to spread
the service demand better.
No data could be collected by the single staff person at the Port Hadlock event due to a record customer
count of over 300 and with the first customer queued in the line at 7:55 am for a 10 am start time.
Mirroring the Quilcene event, the majority of customers arrived in the first two hours and had more
than an hour wait while those arriving after 1 pm had an average wait time of 15 minutes. No
10 am - 11 am 11 am - 12 pm 12 pm - 1 pm 1 pm - 2 pm
Port Townsend 15 9 4 1 1
Kala Point 0 0 0 0 0
Port Hadlock 3 2 1 0 0
Chimacum 2 1 0 0 1
Irondale 0 0 0 0 0
Port Ludlow 7 3 2 1 1
Gardiner 3 1 1 1 0
Cape George 1 0 0 1 0
Marrowstone 1 0 0 0 1
Coyle 1 0 0 1 0
Discovery Bay 0 0 0 0 0
Quilcene 26 9 11 4 2
Brinnon 27 13 5 6 3
38 24 15 9
Total Count 86
Event TimeCustomer Distribution Customer Count
Hourly Count
customers were turned away and most customers did not mind the long wait time (less than the
average wait time for a WA State ferry). Two customers asked to be guided out of line because they had
tickets to a movie at the Rose Theatre and only one customer was refused service and directed out of
line because of their belligerent behavior toward staff.
Ideas being considered for the 2025 collection events include:
• larger event site for the tri-area event
• quarterly events instead of the 2/Spring, 2/Fall event schedule
• adding an event
• more staff for better traffic control and managing customer expectations
• a reservation system
The WA State Department of Enterprise Services contract is being used to procure HHW collection
services and the mobilization fees are based on the estimated car counts as shown in the below table
with the County’s service level shown in yellow highlight. If the County chose to reduce the wait time at
these events by scaling up the car count it would add an additional $17,599 per event or $70,398 per
year, assuming 4 events/year.
Staff would prefer to work toward spreading the customer demand across the event dates and the
event hours.
SERVICE AREA C: PRICE SHEET
Mobilization Charge for One Day Mobile Collection Event
Line Estimated Number of Vehicles
Minimum Number of
Staff Mobilization Price
1 250 cars or less 7 $8,449.46
2 250-500 11 $9,371.22
3 501-750 15 $26,970.68
4 751 cars or more 27 $35,318.75