Feb. 3 WHT:Higa also addressed several questions on the stalled vote to fund a new sort station adjacent to the Hilo landfill. Wednesday the council delayed a vote on additional funding needed for the station for two weeks, leaving some residents confused over the status of the project.Higa explained that he voted to delay the vote until the Feb. 15 meeting to ensure there would be enough votes for it to pass."We did not have the six votes to pass and I refuse to let this bill pass by," Higa said. "My vote will be yes (to build the station) because I think we're at a point that we need this."But Higa also made sure to emphatically state that he is against hauling any trash from East Hawaii to West Hawaii by passing huge trucks through Waimea."I'm totally against trucking the trash to Kona," Higa said. "I don't want one truck coming through here. I told the mayor, if one truck goes to Kona, it's on him. Don't blame the council."
Feb 9 WHT:HILO -- The county is prepared to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a super transfer station in Hilo, despite an offer from a private firm to address East Hawaii's trash problem at its own expense.Bio Energy Hawaii -- a partnership between Pacific Waste and Georgia-based Ferco Enterprises and Allied Energy Services -- has offered to redesign and close the Hilo landfill, build a waste processing facility, a bio-mass gasifier, a waste-to-energy plant and an ethanol production facility here.The company claims it would save the county the $13 million expense to close the Hilo landfill, the cost to build a sort station, and the projected cost to ship East Hawaii's waste to the Puuanahulu landfill once the landfill reaches capacity.Both Mayor Harry Kim and County Council Chairman Stacy Higa, of Hilo, said they have encouraged BEH to participate in the request-for-proposal (RFP) process under way for a waste reduction technology.But BEH representatives have said -- and BEH project manager Guy Kaniho confirmed again Wednesday -- that they do not plan to participate in that process that requires, by Feb. 17, the submittal of technical, management and financial qualifications to permit, design, build and operate a waste reduction facility in East Hawaii.Higa, noting he has reviewed BEH's proposal, said, "It's viable. They have a great proposal and there's an RFP that's out there right now I would hope they would answer and try to qualify for.""At this point, I have difficulty understanding with all procurement laws in place, how the county can negotiate with one vendor. I like their proposal. I really do, but we have to follow the procedures to get them into a position to help our county," Higa said.Kim also said he reviewed BEH's proposal and he pointed to a Jan. 18 response to Kaniho stating, "There is no legal way to accept an unsolicited proposal such as you present" and encouraging BEH to participate in the RFP process for a waste reduction technology.
Kaniho said Wednesday the RFP, as BEH understands it, "does not address what the county needs, as far as a resolution to waste disposal for a lot of reasons, some of which I can't go into right now."He said BEH is preparing a letter detailing why BEH believes the RFP is deficient in addressing "landfill needs -- which we believe is the real issue."Kim said he plans to meet with Pacific Waste Chief Executive Officer Kosti Shirvanian next week, after telling Shirvanian he couldn't speak to him privately if BEH will be participating in the RFP process and Shirvanian telling him BEH won't be.Kim said he told Shirvanian "we have hundreds of questions for everything you stated" and "if (BEH representatives) are serious about their offer, they must be specific and not speak in generalities. I can't review a proposal with generalities. If I did that, it would be the most fiscally irresponsible thing to the taxpayers of Hawaii Island, and it would be legally wrong. I am bound to abide by procurement laws.""I don't believe the taxpayers of this island believe that a private company would give $40 million with no strings attached. The question is, how do you pay for it?" Kim said. "Besides the money, I have a serious obligation to question the proposal. It's a new technology never used anywhere in the world. Something entirely new for Hawaii Island and for East Hawaii. Naturally, we are going to question it."Higa said he believes council has done everything they can as policy makers "to entertain and educate ourselves about all the available technologies" at the same they abide by procurement laws."There are emergency provisions, but my understanding is we don't have an emergency because we have another permitted landfill on the island," Higa said. "That is why I would hope that BEH goes through the process. If their proposal is as good as I believe it is, I am hoping the process will allow them to rise to the top. That's the process that has been set up. Everybody comes to the county and says they want to help us, but then again we have procurement laws."Next week the County Council decides whether to provide an additional $1.1 million for the proposed East Hawaii Regional Sort Station, for which $6.2 million has already been appropriated.Higa feels like council members' "backs are to the walls" because, if the Department of Health doesn't approve an extension on the life of the landfill, "there is no alternative other than to truck to Kona. It's a reality, a fact of life.""I'm of the mindset to approve the reload facility (sort station) for nine trucks to go to Kona daily, rather than 90," Higa said."I don't want any trucks going to Kona, but DOH might say 'you have no extension, sorry, you have another landfill and it may not be politically correct, but you have to ship to Kona,'" Higa said.He said he would prefer East Hawaii's trash be shipped to a mainland landfill until a waste reduction technology is in place.Kim said the county may be able to prepare a bid -- separate from an RFP -- that calls for quotes to ship trash off-island.
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