PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has received a dual-purpose grant from the state Department of Ecology to pave the muddy recycle drop-box area at the Blue Mountain Transfer Station and to develop the Master Gardeners’ organics program.
The $104,416 grant, which includes a 25 percent local match, was unanimously approved by the three commissioners Tuesday.
“It does two things, essentially,” Public Works Administrative Director Bob Martin told commissioners in their Monday work session.
“One, it provides $20,000 to do some surfacing work, most likely concrete work, where the recycle bins are at the Blue Mountain Transfer Station,” he said.
“They’ve been wanting to harden that up for quite some time because it gets pretty sloppy up there in the winter.”
The Blue Mountain Transfer Station between Port Angeles and Sequim was destroyed in a fire Nov. 10.
It reopened for Saturday-only recycling collection in January.
End of month
The facility, which is owned by Clallam County and operated by Waste Connections under a contract with the city of Port Angeles, is “pretty much on schedule” to reopen for garbage and recycling by the end of this month, Martin said.
The bulk of the two-year, $104,416 consolidated prevention grant from Ecology will be used for the Master Gardeners’ organics program.
Master Gardeners is part of Washington State University Extension.
Clallam County WSU Extension Director Clea Rome said the grant will enable the part-time Master Gardener volunteer coordinator to work full time developing education and outreach on pest management, site safety and other topics.
“This is a huge help for our office,” Rome said at the work session.
The second component for WSU Extension is a waste-prevention effort led by waste-reduction coordinator Meggan Uecker.
“She is going to be working with local restaurants on food waste and on education around organic production,” Rome told commissioners.
Among other duties, Uecker will oversee a countywide program that delivers excess harvests to area food banks.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
