February 17, 2019
Excuse the late entry. I was completely swept up in an effort to save recycling in Moab from what I felt was a fate worse than death....Single Stream Recycling. The City was contemplating making recycling mandatory for all households within the city limits, some 1,600 of them. Monument Waste, the waste haulers for our community, bid on offering recycling, but only through single stream, which I feel is the dirtiest form of recycling. I collaborated with expert partners from across the recycling field, and all of my research regarding single stream was confirmed. I then launched a campaign to inform the public about the possibility that their rates would go up from $11 to $13 per month, and that they would have to have a recycle bin that would take our recycling out of Moab and up to Denver, to be sorted at a MRF .
I placed ads in all the papers for two weeks, invited an expert to come answer questions from the community, and encouraged people to write to the city council letting them know how they felt about this situation. People turned out in record numbers to the council meeting where they were to vote on this. By then, the City had decided to allow residents to "opt out" of mandatory recycling, and to actually allow people to save money by getting a slightly smaller trash can, emptied every other week, instead of every week.
Moab Solutions plans to work closely with the recycle center, (which is in excellent condition, fully staffed with qualified employees, and caught up on all processing), to hold events, contests, and do remote collections in order to keep our local center healthy, keep providing good, year-round jobs, with benefits, and continue sending the bulk of the materials processed to Salt Lake City, where most of the items stay. All I can say is "Whew!"
Point in Time count (PIT): For three days in January, starting on the 24th, I sought out unsheltered homeless so I could ask them if they would allow me to fill out a form for the PIT. This is done every year across the USA and is a way to try to find out how many homeless there are here. I was able to find and get permission from 7 people to count them. Other agencies counted too, so when the final results for Grand County come out, I will post them here.
There are several unsheltered that do not wish to be counted, and others, living in cars, that are hard to find, so I would guess that there were at least as many that I did not find, and two that I know of for certain who would not consent to the count, out there.
Trail work: We are about to enter into some trail work to prepare Mill Creek for the upcoming visitor season. I have had the good fortune to be able to hire a very highly qualified trail worker, so look for improvements in the canyon soon.
Excuse the late entry. I was completely swept up in an effort to save recycling in Moab from what I felt was a fate worse than death....Single Stream Recycling. The City was contemplating making recycling mandatory for all households within the city limits, some 1,600 of them. Monument Waste, the waste haulers for our community, bid on offering recycling, but only through single stream, which I feel is the dirtiest form of recycling. I collaborated with expert partners from across the recycling field, and all of my research regarding single stream was confirmed. I then launched a campaign to inform the public about the possibility that their rates would go up from $11 to $13 per month, and that they would have to have a recycle bin that would take our recycling out of Moab and up to Denver, to be sorted at a MRF .
I placed ads in all the papers for two weeks, invited an expert to come answer questions from the community, and encouraged people to write to the city council letting them know how they felt about this situation. People turned out in record numbers to the council meeting where they were to vote on this. By then, the City had decided to allow residents to "opt out" of mandatory recycling, and to actually allow people to save money by getting a slightly smaller trash can, emptied every other week, instead of every week.
Moab Solutions plans to work closely with the recycle center, (which is in excellent condition, fully staffed with qualified employees, and caught up on all processing), to hold events, contests, and do remote collections in order to keep our local center healthy, keep providing good, year-round jobs, with benefits, and continue sending the bulk of the materials processed to Salt Lake City, where most of the items stay. All I can say is "Whew!"
Point in Time count (PIT): For three days in January, starting on the 24th, I sought out unsheltered homeless so I could ask them if they would allow me to fill out a form for the PIT. This is done every year across the USA and is a way to try to find out how many homeless there are here. I was able to find and get permission from 7 people to count them. Other agencies counted too, so when the final results for Grand County come out, I will post them here.
There are several unsheltered that do not wish to be counted, and others, living in cars, that are hard to find, so I would guess that there were at least as many that I did not find, and two that I know of for certain who would not consent to the count, out there.
Trail work: We are about to enter into some trail work to prepare Mill Creek for the upcoming visitor season. I have had the good fortune to be able to hire a very highly qualified trail worker, so look for improvements in the canyon soon.
Work done to erase graffiti on rocks in Mill Creek. Thanks Sue Baril!
Enjoy this slide show from work done on Potato Salad Hill in January.
A happier time for this now destroyed dam.
Forever and always, we dedicate our work to David Morgan
The man. Two weeks before he died. At Ken's Lake (late November of 2013).