When I initially read that the Recycling Center Director was laid off, I assumed it was a cost saving measure as suggested in the story. A week later (6/2/10) I read that the savings of the layoff to the county was a mere $25k. In the same story I read that county commisioners were wondering how the facility could continue to "expand or promote" the facility without a "department head" or basically, a leader. It was also said that it was originally intended to be an "enterprise department" within the county which means that it was to be a self funded department. Apparently, this has only occurred once and was more related to a change to the fiscal year and not any real profit.

Now that I've summarized the issue, I have some questions that I believe have been overlooked. I will start by saying the layoff of the Director is a poor decision and short-sighted, especially because of the very small salary involved - I am amazed that they had a person who I personally know had dedicated herself to the job the way she did for such a small salary. She visited numerous K12 classrooms in the area and assisted many teachers with thoughts and ideas for Earth Day and other "green" studies. I am responsible for the all of the technology used in MPPS and have worked with Amy on the proper disposal of many very obsolete and dead technology assets that would have been real simple to just throw into a dumpster.

Any department/orgainization needs a leader to provide vision and do the daily leg work to keep the operation running smoothly. A leader is always looking for the best deals on purchases and in this case, best prices for the materials recovered. The current staff that are left after the layoff of the leader will most likely not operate with those types of priorities and will quickly become a much bigger loss to the county in ways that will only be discovered a year from now.

Sometimes things make sense by comparing extreme possibilities. What if we eliminated the recycling program all together. This would be a huge mistake and take Isabella county backwards in my view and the views of potential communty members and businesses that use that type of information when considering a new home.

Regardless, how many additional tons of trash would be added to current landfills by the elimination of the recycling facility? I am certain that the county administrator did not consider that additional cost which is currently being picked up by the recycling center. Also, how much of that trash will take thousands of years to decompose and basically, take up that much more space in the landfill which in turn will force future expansions of the landfills, which costs?

Although the facility was intended to be an "enterprise" department, even if it requires additional support to operate, the money received for it's materials now would be money lost if it were all dumped into a landfill. I haven't even mentioned the huge health cost to the communities in Isabella county that consumes water from landfills polluted with heavy metals and all of the other chemicals associated with most of the rectyclable materials currently being collected and re-used. How about a drink of leaded battery water after a good run?

Lastly, the economy is turning around and I personally believe that there will be a boom in the building industry which I believe is a large consumer of recycled materials for things like deck boards and posts. One of the CNN financial experts has predicted a housing shortage in 2011. This will add up to increased demand for building materials, especially for recycled goods and with increased demand you get increased value.

Finally, I would not predict that the Isabella County Recycling Facility will ever become a profit center for the county, but I do wish that true benefits and costs are considered for the facility, both tangible and intangible. I think if a complete analysis is performed, it will become obvious that the Isabella County Recycling Center is an asset that needs to be maintained with a true leader at the helm and not operated remotely from the county administrators office.