Officials eye solid waste solution as nonprofit shrinks operations

ATHENS, Ohio — Local leaders are exploring ways to make solid waste management a government-led and -provided service, following the city of Athens’ decision to contract with a large waste management company over a local competitor.
In November, the city announced it had accepted a bid from Rumpke Waste & Recycling, giving that company a multimillion-dollar, three-year contract effective Jan. 1, 2024. That contract could be the death knell for nonprofit Athens-Hocking Recycling Centers, Inc., which gets 40% of its annual revenue from contracts with the city of Athens.
AHRC has been the city’s waste hauler since 2014. Its contract with the city expired June 30. In April, the city rejected bids from both AHRC and Rumpke on the advice of Law Director Lisa Eliason, who said the bids were incomplete.
Although the city’s contract with AHRC allowed for two one-year extensions at the same price, AHRC told the city it could not not continue to provide service at the existing rates.
The city cannot reinstate AHRC as its trash provider without issuing another call for bids — but it could exit its Rumpke contract if it forms or joins a council of governments.
The Ohio Revised Code defines COGs as public entities comprising two or more political subdivisions (such as cities, townships or school districts) that enter into agreements with one another.
Athens Service-Safety Director Andy Stone confirmed that the city can terminate its contract with Rumpke any time in the next three years with 60 days’ notice.
AHRC would not exist under the proposed COG; the new entity, the Southeast Ohio Area Resources Council of Governments, would absorb AHRC and its assets.
At a Dec. 13 public meeting about forming a COG, Athens County Commissioner Chris Chmiel said that Athens Mayor Steve Patterson favors joining the proposed COG. Patterson did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Athens City Law Director Lisa Eliason confirmed in an email Tuesday that she is currently reviewing a draft agreement and bylaws for the COG.
AHRC Human Resources Manager and Executive Director-to-be Crissa Cummings said swift action is needed to save the organization, which will run through its cash reserves by May 2024. A COG cannot take on debt, she noted, so if AHRC falls into debt, its assets could not be absorbed by the COG.
At a Dec. 13 public meeting, Cummings said she believes a COG is “the best path forward” for AHRC.
“This would be able to preserve the recycling infrastructure and those local union jobs by forming a council of governments to provide a regional approach to sustainable waste management,” Cummings said.
County Commissioner Chris Chmiel spoke in favor of forming a COG at the Dec. 13 public meeting. “We’re gonna get through this, and we’re gonna be stronger and better than ever, I think,” Chmiel said. “In a council of governments … we serve our communities, and we serve our customers, with our residents and our communities.”
A stark New Year
The idea of forming a council of governments to absorb AHRC has been kicked around since 2019 — between the city, county and AHRC, Cummings told the Independent. It wasn’t until the competitive bidding process between Rumpke and AHRC this year that forming a COG became imperative for the organization’s survival, she said.

“We’re financially stable for the moment, but we will not be long after Jan. 1,” Cummings told the Independent.
The organization is already feeling the repercussions of losing the city contract. In late November, Cummings told the Independent that AHRC had 49 employees, 31 of whom were full time.
When the Rumpke contract was announced, though, AHRC employees began putting in resignation notices; by Dec. 20, AHRC was down to 43 workers. Of the remaining employees, 35 are members of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Eight positions are non-union.
In an email to the Independent Tuesday, Cummings said AHRC plans to lay off five union employees and two non-union workers by the end of the month. Another two non-union jobs will be cut through layoffs or attrition in coming months, she said.
“The full-time compost collection/processing [job] is now part time,” she wrote. “However, we have work for the person in another department, so the individual will stay on full time.”
Layoffs will be determined by seniority and classifications, she told the Independent.
Cummings said in November that AHRC hopes to participate in SharedWork Ohio, “a layoff aversion program” that keeps workers employed at reduced, yet state-compensated, hours.
“[SharedWork Ohio] can last for up to a year, so it’s a temporary solution,” Cummings said in November.
While AHRC is losing employees, Rumpke is hiring. An FAQ from the company states that it will base its services for Athens from a Nelsonville location; Rumpke bought the Athens-Hocking Landfill from Logan-based business Kilbarger Construction, Inc. in 2021.
Commissioners mulling possibilities
The city of Athens and Athens County are already part of a council of governments — the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council. But while Chmiel (who is chair of SOPEC’s board of directors) favors joining a solid waste COG, his fellow commissioners appear to disagree on the county’s role in the organization.
Minutes from the commissioners’ Dec. 5 meeting show that Charlie Adkins did not favor joining the COG due to liability; Lenny Eliason said it makes more sense for municipalities to participate, as opposed to the county; and Chris Chmiel favors the county becoming a charter member of the COG.
On Wednesday, Eliason told the Independent that he thinks “a council of governments is a good idea,” but believes the COG should form with the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District as a charter member, not Athens County.
A solid waste district is a government body tasked with creating solid waste management plans for its areas. Each county in Ohio is required to be in a solid waste district, alone or with other counties.
Up into the 1990s, sanitation was a service provided by the health department; the state created SWDs in the late 1980s to manage solid waste. AHRC, formed in 1987, shared employees and resources with the health department, and later the solid waste district starting in 1988, Cummings said in an email Thursday.
Cummings said in a November interview that solid waste collection was in the hands of the AHSWD, while AHRC supported recycling; The two entities maintained that sort of “legal relationship” up until 2014. That year, due to liability concerns, AHRC and AHSWD split.
AHRC went from a “private nonprofit union shop [to] a public nonprofit union shop,” Rural Action Zero Waste Co-Director and former AHRC Director Ed Newman said in an email Thursday.
“With the split between the solid waste district and the nonprofit [in 2014] … [recycling] became the sole purview of [AHRC],” Cummings said. “So with the split between the solid waste district and the nonprofit, now they had to put everything out to bid … When the collection of trash and recycling is handled by a governmental agency, communities don’t have to send it out to bid — they can contract directly with that government agency.”
The six Athens and Hocking counties commissioners sit on the AHSWD board. Adkins said in an interview Wednesday that he is “very interested” in a COG for waste management.
“I believe, if we don’t get a handle at this point, that recycling in Athens County … as we know it, won’t be here, because I believe the cost is eventually going way up,” Adkins said. “My fear is then more recyclables are going to head to the dump.”
Adkins agreed with Eliason that the commissioners should participate in the COG through the solid waste district, as opposed to the county; if the county were to join in addition to the SWD, due to commissioners membership within the SWD, the COG would then be two groups of the same people on one board.
Joining the COG as the county could introduce conflicts of interest, Adkins explained, as the commissioners would have “fiduciary responsibility” both for the county and the solid waste district; what’s best for the county may not be best for the district, he said.
The solid waste district board will meet Feb. 5, 2024, to discuss a COG, WOUB reported.
Adkins said, “If that goes through, our part might be pretty quick.” After that, the matter would move onto “the villages and cities and townships, whoever wants to get involved. … They’re gonna have to bring it up for readings … and that can be a slow process.”
Additionally, according to the Ohio Auditor of State, a COG cannot take any action other than formation for 30 days after filing with the state.
Adkins hopes a COG can form early next year, and that later, Hocking County would join.
“I’m going to do what I can to support more recycling at a cost where people will recycle,” Adkins said. “Some will walk across hot sands to recycle, and some’s not gonna walk across the street.”
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