A Pulaski County Council member wants to look into privatizing the county’s Recycling and Transfer Station. Rudy DeSabatine told the county commissioners Monday that it costs the county thousands of dollars a year to operate the facility, and he wants to talk to a potential operator about selling or leasing it.
“We went to the Transfer Station, had a little bit of a confrontation to say the least, and I was told that I need to come here in front of the commissioners to get approval to allow those guys to give us some information on what they have to offer, if anything,” DeSabatine explained.
The commissioners agreed to let DeSabatine discuss a potential lease, but they weren’t comfortable with selling it outright, with Chuck Mellon expressing concern that it could turn into a junkyard if the county doesn’t keep some control.
But there are also other factors to consider. The facility gets thousands of dollars of support every year from the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District.
Director Mindy Gleason told the commissioners that while that funding isn’t technically dependent on the county running the facility directly, any outside operator would have to be registered and be willing to continue hosting the current programs like electronics recycling. Additionally, the district wouldn’t send funding directly to a private business.
“So I just want to make sure that you’re aware of the Indiana Codes that go into the Recycling Center and the part of the district that we’re doing,” Gleason told the commissioners, “and I hope that moving forward, if there’s any discussion on changing things, that we can work together to be a part of that to ensure that we can still continue to pay for all those benefits that the Pulaski County is getting.”
Gleason said the only county in the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District that currently outsources its recycling operations is Newton County, and it thinks it can save money by bringing it in-house.
Council Member DeSabatine’s proposal earlier this year to privatize Arens Field was also met with a number of concerns.
