The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

PRESCOTT - The Prescott City Council last Monday hopped on board to help create a new sol- id waste plan for Walla Walla County by nominat- ing Councilmen Chuck Kimzey and Gene Alandi to the Solid Waste Advi- sory Committee.

Melissa Warner, the Walla Walla County Solid Waste sustainability coor- dinator, visited the Prescott council meeting last Mon- day to tell the group about her project with the hope of selecting new representa- tives for the city of Prescott and to get the group to sign an interlocal agreement.

The plan Warner is work- ing on is funded by a grant from the state Department of Ecology and helps address all issues of solid waste for the future, including issues with septic systems, hazardous waste, illegal dumping, composting and regular consumer garbage.

The plan is still in its pri- mary stages, Warner said, so having Prescott get on board at this point in time won't put the city too far behind.

The total cost of the plan will be $100,000 to $150,000, Warner said. Ecology's grant pays for most of it, but the county ju- risdictions, including Waits- burg and Prescott, will be expected to chip in some matching funds. Warner said because Prescott's popula- tion is about 0.5 percent of the county, it would only be asked to chip in 0.5 percent of the cost, or about $128. It is only a one-time payment.

Councilman Doug Venn asked if the city of Prescott could pay that amount through an in-kind payment and Warner said she didn't believe so, but she would check. The money contributed by the jurisdic- tions will be paying for the consulting team that is drafting the plan, she added.

The 20-year solid waste management plan is being reviewed and re-writ- ten now because it hasn't been updated since 1994, Warner said. Walla Walla County currently has the oldest plan in the state of Washington.

"Ecology has been very patient with us," she said. "We're going to go from worst to first really soon."

With 11 members from jurisdictions all throughout the county on the Solid Waste Advisory Commit- tee, including Prescott and Waitsburg representatives, Warner believes the draft plan can be ready for public review in May 2013.

"We've got a pretty good trajectory to get this project going," she said.

Any citizen in the county will be able to access a copy of the draft plan and submit public comments on the document by the end of June.

Once the committee and the public OK the plan, it would be up to the county to adopt it, Warner said.

Warner also asked the council to sign an interlocal agreement saying the city of Prescott will be at the ta- ble to contribute to the plan, but because the council had not yet received a copy, it is expected to approve the agreement and sign it at its December meeting.