Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The Jefferson County Solid Waste Department has a new director. He is Robbie Slack, who has previously worn several hats in the organization.
The Jefferson County Commission appointed Slack as department head on Thursday, Oct. 7. Slack, however, had already been serving as interim director since the start of the month. Before that, he and Christie Lashley had pretty much been running the operation.
That’s because the former director, Beth Letchworth, whose last day was to have been on Sept. 30, took sick with a bad case of COVID sometime in September and had been out of the office since.
In Letchworth’s absence, Slack, formerly the animal control officer, along with Lashley, who also handles animal control and code enforcement, kept the operation going as best as they could. Now that Slack has been put officially over the solid waste operation, he continues handling animal control and code enforcement duties, along with Lashley.
County Coordinator Parrish Barwick, who oversees all the county’s operations, mentioned at the commission meeting the possibility of hiring a separate animal control officer and possibly separating code enforcement from the department. Late last week, Slack received permission to advertise for the position of code enforcement and animal control.
Barwick, in his remarks, noted that Letchworth had been a long time with the county and her job had evolved as the operation had gone from solely garbage collections to animal control and code enforcement.
“Beth was with us 20 or so years,” Barwick said. “She had to grow into a lot of areas and had the time to grow and adapt. But maybe it’s time to reconsider.”
He offered that the department was experiencing turmoil, a result of Letchworth’s sudden departure, the pandemic, staff turnovers and other issues. But hopefully, he said, things would level off with Slack’s appointment.
“It’s been pretty steady,” Slack said last week, when asked how the new job was going. “It hasn’t slowed down any. We’re still short staffed. But we’re doing what we can to keep our heads above water.”
He didn’t contemplate making any changes to the department in the foreseeable future in terms of the established practices and procedures, he said.
“If it’s not broken, why fix it,” Slack said. “But if we need to change something as times goes by to make the operation more efficient, we will.”
For the present, he said, he continued trying to juggle all the balls that were in the air, which had been the situation since Letchworth’s departure.
“We’re trying to keep everything caught up,” Slack said. “My previous position is still unfilled. Christie is doing a lot of animal control and code enforcement. We do what we can, but we’re not superheroes.”
The department, he said, currently had eight full-time employees, counting himself and Lashley. It also had several part-time employees who monitored the different collections sites, he said.
As far as the recycling program, Slack said he didn’t see it going back to the way it was anytime in the foreseeable future. The operation, he said, was still unable to get prison inmates to help with the sorting and separating of the recyclable items.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, he said, provided two jail trustees to work at the center, but it wasn’t enough to process the recyclables.
The department, he said, continued to recycle cardboard and miscellaneous metals, including white goods. It also accepted hazardous materials, such as old batteries, used oil, paints, electronics and the like.
When it came to plastics and aluminum cans, however, the market was nonexistent, he said.
“A lot of people want to recycle,” Slack said. “But it costs more to recycle the plastics and aluminum than what we get back. It’s cheaper to take them to the landfill.”
“You have to pay to get rid of plastic and glass,” Slack added. “And even cardboard prices are not consistent. They fluctuate. It can go for $25 a ton to $200 a ton.”
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