County recycling boards continue talks about roofing shingles

By KEVIN KOELLING
Managing Editor

TELL CITY – The Perry County Recycling Management District continues to explore the possibility of accepting shingles, members of its board of directors heard at their regular meeting Oct. 24.

Lynn Rice, a member of the district’s advisory board, reported that group had discussed at an Oct. 8 meeting modifications that would be necessary at the Cannelton site to accept the roofing materials.

“There’ll need to be some changes made, some construction-type things done to accommodate trucks and the shingles,” she said. “Ken’s working on getting some ideas and some prices for that.”

As the News reported Oct. 7, Executive Director Ken Smith said Sept. 26 the exploration was in the discussion phase, with startup and processing costs to be determined. He hoped to be ready to make a decision by the end of the year on whether the new service would be feasible.

Shingles would be dropped off at the Cannelton site for a fee that hadn’t yet been determined, but would likely be based on the size of the truck delivering it, Smith said at the latest meeting.

“We started getting some quotes on getting the site prepared … quotes on concrete and building a structure, fencing in the compound, things like that,” he told the directors. “It’s the first step to see if it’s even feasible for us to do it … we’re a ways off yet, but we’ve already had people coming down wanting to know whether we’re going to start taking roofing shingles.”

Board member and Tell City Common Councilman Gary Morton asked if any neighboring districts provide shingle collection services and if they were making money at it.

“The only people close to us taking shingles right now is Martin County,” Smith replied. “It’s not a major source of revenue, but it’s a source of revenue. They’ve only been doing it for maybe four or five months, at most.”

He’s been in contact with officials there, he said, and “they have had no bad reports about it.”

“Our revenue is going to be what we charge to bring it in,” Smith said. “Right now, they’re charging about $40 a ton at the landfill in Lewisport (Ky.), the transfer station. There’s a construction-debris landfill closer to Owensboro (Ky.); I don’t know what they’re charging for shingles per ton. Those are the kinds of things we’ve got to work out – is it going to be feasible for us to even take them in? We’re not going to do it for free.”

In Martin County, a grain mill across a road from the recycling center has a truck scale, Smith said, making accurate weights simple. Installing one here would be cost prohibitive, he noted.“We don’t have that. We’re not going to send them down to Mulzer’s (Crushed Stone) or something like that,” he told the board, “but we will find out a rough weight. A dump truck has so many tons of shingles on it, that’s what it’s going to cost.”

Morton also asked about scrap wood, nails and other debris mixed into loads.

“All that comes out when they grind the shingles,” Smith said. “We’re not going to have a problem because we’re not going to grind the shingles. We’re just going to load the shingles on a dump trailer and when they come to get them.”

The company that will get the shingles needs them badly, he also said.

“They stockpiled for about four years,” he explained, “and in less than a year, they’ve already ground them all up. They need as many shingles as they can get.”

In other business, Smith reported prices for the recyclable materials already being collected are “remaining steady. They didn’t change, up or down, for October … they were a whole lot better about a year ago but they’re better than they were six months ago.”

The district directors’ next meetings will mirror those of the county council. Both groups normally meet the fourth Thursday of each month, but that schedule brings conflicts with Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Their next meetings are scheduled for Nov. 26, a Tuesday, and Dec. 19. The recycling-management directors meet at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse.