Now that the Carroll County Board of Commissioners has voted on the county airport expansion issue, the board is looking to evaluate another major decision - whether to proceed with a waste-to-energy incinerator.
The board has said for months that it wanted to look at the incinerator issue, a decision that was approved 2-1 by the previous board, from scratch, particularly after several board members had said they were against the incinerator during their campaigns.
The board has announced it will host an evening forum on solid waste Feb. 28 at Carroll Community College. The list of speakers is still being formed, but the forum is expected to include a range of topics from the waste-to-energy incinerator to recycling to a gasification plant.
Jeffrey Topper, county deputy director of public works, said some of the speakers already committed to the forum include Ted Michaels, of the Energy Recovery Council; Lori Scozzafava, of the Solid Waste Association of North America; Chaz Miller, of the National Solid Waste Management Association; and a representative from Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc., a solid waste management consulting firm.
The group Waste Not! Carroll, which tried to persuade the last board of commissioners into not pursuing the incinerator, will also get a chance to make a short presentation during the forum.
"We're trying to go back really to square one, to understand what we really inherited from the last board, what the status of it is, what the options are and what really other options have presented themselves since we've taken office," said Commissioner Doug Howard, R-District 5.
Howard said the board has gotten some flak for not tackling the incinerator issue earlier, but since there was no need for the board to make a decision for the next 16 to 18 months after taking office, they decided to tackle more pressing issues first.
"We knew that if we made a quick decision to change the course, it could cost the county a tremendous amount of money, so during that period of time, it's been a matter of trying to see what's happening in the market, see what other options present themselves," Howard said. "Frankly, there have been so many other things suggested in the past year, I think it would be silly to have that discussion without taking this into consideration, of what other options are out there."
One of those other options is a proposal for a privately-owned plasma gasification facility that would be situated in Taneytown. ALFA Group LLC, based in Philadelphia, had a public information session with the Taneytown City Council and mayor in January that was cut short by the council's predetermined schedule for the evening.
But the public information meeting will be continued Wednesday night, said City Manager Henry Heine, to allow the rest of the residents who attended the previous meeting to ask their questions of ALFA Group's leaders.
Oscar Padilla, CEO of ALFA Group, said he isn't sure what residents can ask that wasn't addressed at the previous meeting, but he is happy to return and answer what he can. So far the proposal to Taneytown is conceptual, he said, and this presentation has been a first step.
"We're just a business interested in Taneytown, and we'd like their cooperation," he said.
Howard said the board of commissioners is looking forward to hearing from as many residents from across the county as possible on Feb. 28 at the solid waste forum.
"We'll stay until everybody gets a chance to have their three minutes and give us their thoughts on the incinerator and related issues," Howard said. "Subsequent to that, we'll have on our agenda some time after that, an opportunity for us, in open session, to discuss [the information] and deliberate."
One group that won't be presenting but has been invited to attend the forum is the Carroll County Environmental Advisory Council. The county commissioners met with the EAC in January and told the group that the incinerator decision was a county topic that the board would like to hear from EAC on.
"As our environmental advisory group, we think it's important for them to hear what is presented," Howard said. "I think their presentation to us might be more meaningful after they get the same kind of input that we're going to get, and certainly to weigh in before we take our next step."
