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Effective June 30, Cumberland County will suspend the yard waste equipment sharing program it has with local municipalities. bio medical waste incinerator
County Commissioners Jean Foschi and Kelly Neiderer voted last week to discontinue the program after county staff were unable to renew insurance coverage on the equipment. Commissioner Gary Eichelberger was absent.
In January, an engine fire damaged a county-owned horizontal grinder while the equipment was being rented by a municipality, recycling coordinator Justin Miller said.
“This placed the program under the insurance microscope," he said. "At first, our current provider requested substantial changes to our written agreements with municipalities to continue insurance coverage after June 30. However, after further review, the carrier later stated that the program and equipment carried tremendous risk. They will no longer cover the leased equipment after June 30.”
The an insurance broker tried but failed to obtain coverage from other companies that cited similar concerns over risk and a history of losses tied to yard waste processing equipment, Miller said.
On May 20, the governing board of the county Recycling and Waste Authority recommended the commissioners permanently suspend the program after June 30.
“We believe that all options to continue the program have been exhausted,” Miller said. “We’ve been discussing this issue for the past two months.”
“Staff has done an unbelievable in-depth of making sure there were no options available for the county,” Foschi said. “I appreciate that hard work very much.”
In follow-up motions, Foschi and Neiderer authorized staff to notify municipalities of the suspension and to work up options for maybe transferring ownership of the equipment to townships and boroughs.
The county started the program in 1994 as a rental service to spare municipalities the expense of buying expensive equipment for limited use. One goal was to expand existing municipal leaf and yard waste collection/drop-off programs.
That first year, the county had two turners and one tub grinder available to help five municipalities. Over 30 years, additional equipment was purchased, and the number of municipalities served almost quadrupled to 18, according to a posting on the county website.
“Since the equipment is grant-funded, we also have to work with DEP,” Miller said, referring to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Generally, the state agency prefers that ownership of equipment be transferred to another governmental body, Miller said. “We would like to try to keep the equipment in the county so that it’s still available to municipalities.”
“This program was very important to our municipalities,” Foschi said. “I’m very glad that we will be working on developing options. It’s a good thing to do."
In related action, the commissioners authorized Miller to apply for a $14,182 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
The grant will be used to reimburse the county for part of the expense of hosting an April 11 event that collected 32,240 pounds of household hazardous waste from 354 customers. The county generated $15,350 in revenue in user fees at the event.
Fresh off the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange Bowhead Specialty CEO Stephen Sills discusses what’s next and why some insurance rates are rising.
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