Memorandum
Date: April 14, 2020
To: The Honorable Moke Simon, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Lars Ewing, Public Services Director
Subject: Authorize the closure of the Eastlake Sanitary Landfill until the County of Lake Health Officer rescinds the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order
Executive Summary: (include fiscal and staffing impact narrative):
Currently the Eastlake Sanitary Landfill is open to the public from 7:30am to 3:00pm seven days a week. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff is recommending to close one day a week on Sundays in order to continue providing adequate operations the rest of the week. The reasons are threefold.
First, workforce shortages have hindered our ability to adequately manage landfill operations spread out over a seven day a week period. Fewer County staff are available to work because of voluntary staff isolations/quarantines as well as unexpected recent vacancies. Additionally, the landfill typically benefits from the Lake County Sheriff's Alternative Work Program and Mendo-Lake Alternative Service, which provides individuals who perform site cleanup work at the landfill as an alternative to court-mandated fines or community service hours. Unfortunately during the COVID-19 crisis these programs have been placed on hold.
Second, the concern of COVID-19 contamination on disposal material has added to the operational tasks at the landfill, thereby exacerbating the aforementioned staffing shortage. South Lake Refuse and Recycling (SLRR) normally accepts recyclables at their recycling drop off center adjacent to the landfill. However, SLRR staff usually hand sorts the material and, in light of the health risk to their staff, they made the decision to discontinue receiving any material. As an alternative, the landfill has been accepting recyclable material for temporary storage and future pickup. It is important to note that landfill staff is NOT hand processing the material like SLRR but rather us...
Click here for full text