5A - Will Meyer DedicationCITY OF $OULDER
• PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD AGENDA ITEM
MEETING DATE: February 28, 2002
(Agenda Item Preparation Date: February 6, 2002)
AGENDA TITLE: Will Meyer Dedication
REQUESTING DEPARTMENT:
Gwen Dooley, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Member and Chair
Jan Geden, CPRP, Director of Parks and Recreation
Sarah DeSouza, Assistant to the Director _
II FISCAL IMPACT: Unknown at this time II
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this item ~s to propose dedicating the children's playhouse at Chautauqua in
memory of Will Meyer and the contnbutions he made to the Boulder community
• BACKGROUND:
Followmg the untimely death of Will Meyer, past Chur of the Parks and Recreation Advisory
Board, the Board recommended that the childreds playhouse at Chautauqua be dedicated m his
memory. Gwen Dooley, current Board Chair, has consulted with Mr. Meyer's family and
recommends the following dedication language:
Tkus Chautauqua Playhouse was built in 1998, by Girl Scout Troop 2152, and is dedicated to
Will Meyer (1940-2000), with gratrtude for his love and commitment to our commumty and to
our parks.
ANALYSIS:
None
PUBLIC CONIlVIENT AND PROCESS:
This item is being heard at this pubhc meeting as advertised m the Daily Camera.
STAFF RECONIMENDATION:
None
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AGENDA ITEM # V-A. PAGE 1
• CITYOFBOULDER
PARKS AND R~CREATION ADVISORY BOARD AGENDA ITEM
MEETING DATE: February 25, 2002
(Agenda Item Preparation Date: February 13, 2002)
AGENDA TITLE: Item for Discussion: Recycling Efforts in Urban Parks
REQUESTING DEPARTM~NT: Jan Geden, CPRP, Director, Parks and Recreation
Doug Hawthorne, CPRP, Parks Superintendent
Kara Dinhoffer, Environmental Affairs Department
Bob Peck, City Parks Manager
FISCAL IMPACT: Unknown at this time
PURPOSE:
• The purpose of this memorandum is to provide informahon to the Board conceining the history of
recycling efforts m urban parks, informat~on about how trash is currently collected m urban parks, and
opportunihes for implementing test recyclmg sites in 2002. Bob Peck of City Parks and Kara
Dinhoffer of Environmental Affairs will be at lhe Board meetmg to discuss this program.
BACKGROUND:
•
Recycling Efforts
The City's office of Environmental Affairs is the Division charged with the re5ponsibility of
coordmatmg recyclmg effoits m the City The City currently has a program for the recyclmg of office
papers, alummum cans and bottles and newspapers in pubhc buildings and office space areas In 1992,
Environmental Affairs attempted to pilot a recychng program m a few key park areas, but the
program's successes were rruxed An example of an unsuccessful effort occurred in 1998 at Mapleton
and Stazio Ballfields. AC that time, three recycling "toters" (flip up top, plastic wheeled, plastic carts)
were placed at Mapleton and Stazio Ball fields There was no designated, regular pick up established
to empty the recyclables and we found that the contents of these containers were contammated and
couid not be scavenged for recychng Environmental Affaus staff beheved that the contamer design
and the lack of regular pick up resulted m the contammation for recychng purposes These recycling
containers were removed from these sites m 1999.
Anothei failure, Uut subsequent success at Pear] Street Mall is worth noting In 1992, two recycling
AGENDA ITEM # VII-A. PAGE 1
collection bms were installed on the Mall and m a location on East Pearl, (by 18'~ Street) and a locahon •
on West Pearl, (by 10`h Street). An mdependent~an~torial contractor was hired to empty the contuners
weekly. Approximately 75% of the hme, the recyclables had to be thrown m the trash, because they
were contaminated with trash and non-recyclables Environmental Affairs researched new bin designs,
and m 1998, the Pearl Street bins were replaced and an additional cluster of recycling/trash bins was
placed on the Civic Plaza, next to the Tea House. The new bms were designed with more prevalent
signage, and a shape that made it difficult to throw general trash mto the bin Smce the bins were
redesigned, there have been no mstances where these contamers have been too contammated for
recyclmg collection. From a distance the recychng bms do not look like trash containers. They are
clustered with the regular trash contamers so that if a peison has trash in one hand, they could separate
the trash themselves without leavmg the area The weekly collect~on costs for recycling from these
clusters of recycling bms costs the city $3,000/year These costs are pud for by Environmental Affairs
Park and Recreahon mamtenance staff assigned to the Mail contmue to regulariy collect the non-
recyclable trash from the free-standmg trash receptacles, but do not normally service the recyclmg
contamers To date, it appears that this method of collection is workmg and could be e~panded to
other areas
Current Trash Removal Processes in Urban Park Areas
There are currently 62 urban park srtes mamtamed by the Parks Division. Withm these 62 sites, there
are approximately 300 mdividual, 33-gallon trashcans located at strategic locations m each park Tn
addmon, large, achve community or neighborhood parks that generate a larger volume of trash have
two-yard dumpsters that are used to collect trash from these individual parks, as well as serve as a •
receivmg site for other park trash. There are two-yard dumpsters located in 11 separate park or City
sites. The City Parks Sechon funds trash removal as a separate hne rtem, with a budget of
approximately $113,000 each year
Full time and seasonal park employees are responsible for collectmg trash, along with their other park
mamtenance duties and responsibilities Several years ago, City Parks dec~ded to consolidate and
centrahze this funchon in an effort to become more efficient and to deal with the growth m paikland
and mcreased use of the system City Parks has attempted to hire designated seasonal employee(s) to
collect trash seven days per week during the peak use times. Although we prefer relymg on seasonal
employees to perform this type of work, difficulties m fmdmg labor for tlus funchon has caused us to
use full hme, as well as seasonal employees. Trash collechon currently remams a funcuon performed
in con~une6on with other mamtenance duries
Collection and Disposal of Trash
Collechon and disposal of trash m park areas is different than the collechon of trash m neighborhoods
with curbside service. There ~s no automahon m any of the park trash collection processes. In small,
neighborhood park sites, staff travels from park to park and coilects a trash bag full of trash from each
container and places the bag m the back of a pickup truck A new trash Imer is placed m the can and
the process is repeated at the next park. Dependmg on how full the cans are, trash may exceed 100
pounds in weight. Once the pickup truck bed is full of the trash bags, the mamtenance employee •
AGENDA ITEM # VII-A. PAGE 2
• drives to the closest large park srte and manually removes the bags and tosses them mdividually into
the two-yard dumpster. The Department contracts with Western Disposal to collect and dispose the
trash fiom the two-yard dumpster. Depending on the particular park and history of use, the dumpster
is collected 3-4 times per week m the summer, and at least weekly in the winter. The Department pays
Western Disposal approximately $6,500 per month for the two-yard dumpster service m the eleven
sites with the dumpsters. In 2001, Western Disposal removed 24,000 cubic yards of trash from city
park and recreation ueas.
Dunng the past few years, trash collection systemwide has taken approximately 7 staff hours per day
to make the rounds of all of the city park sites. Addttionally, over the same time period, staff has
noticed an increased amount of personal or home generated trash bemg deposited m the two-yard
dumpsters from neighbors or others, and m some instances have seen mdividual full trash bags placed
outside of some park trash cans. This could be a result of mcreases m neighborhood curb collection
fees or mcreased park usage. Smce the two-yud dumpsters are not locked, it ts not difficult foi a
person to unload a trunk load of trash mto these two-yard dumpsters. -
ANALYSIS:
Staff belteves there are opporturuties for continued recycling m outdoor urban parks Environmental
Affairs staff expenence has shown that it is cridcal to purchase specially designed containers for pubhc
area recychng The specialty containers must discourage "contamination" (trash and non-recyclables
in the recyclmg) and be eas~ly and routinely serviced by the coliection peisonnel. Past recyclmg eftorts
• in parks have not been realized due to the lack of operational budgetary dollars for the purchase of
special recycling collection bms and due to past expenences wrth contammahon of recychng
contatners Due to other workload demands, both Parks and Recreation, and Envuonmental Affairs
staffs have also not had the opportunity to properly develop and analyze pilot sites With the re-
aliocation of the Trash T~, there is $ 6,750 budgeted m the Environmental Affairs 2002 budget to
purchase recyclmg bins for parks. Environmental Affairs also has lured addihonal staff to morutor
business and city recyclmg efforts. As mdicated with recychng efforts on the Mall, Env~ronmental
Affairs staff beheves that a successful recychng program needs to mclude regular collechon services
Parks and Recreation could either utihze existmg parks mamtenance employees to periodically pick
up the recyclables duimg their normal trash collection method idenCified previously, or could establish
a separate collection contract with a recycling collection company, a trash collection company, or
~anrtorial contractor, similar to that performed on Pearl Street Mall. The types of collection contract
ofren impact the container design guidehnes. The recyclmg efforts will need to be analyzed to
determine if the increased costs of collecuon will be offset by a decreased cost of non-recyclables and
to determme workload issues with park staff performmg recyclmg etforts
PUBLIC COMMENT AND PROCESS:
This rtem is being heard at this public meetmg, as advertised in the Daily Camera.
.
AGENDA ITEM # VII-A. PAGE 3
STAFF RECOMMENDATION: •
Staff proposes to work closely with Environmentai Affairs staff to develop a pilot program dunng the
next nme months. We propose that three different types of park areas should be chosen as test sites
for this pilot program We recommend that one large commumty park site such as Tom Watson Park,
a designated sports complex site such as Stazio Ballfields and a small neighborhood park site such as
Martm Park (that also houses a reservable picmc shelter) be used as pilot sites this year. We propose
to explore and analyze the costs and demands on workload of staff collecting the recyclables versus
usmg private contractors to do this work. We also would also analyze the recycling program's effect
on the amount of cubic yards of non-recyclables collected m these parks. Staff will present their
findmgs to the Board at a meeting later this summer or fall.
•
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AGENDA ITEM # VII-A. PAGE 4