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Fla. county recruits curbside help By Michael Pelfier INVERNESS. FL~. -- Citrus County, Fla., officials are phasing out their curbside program to save costs and expand service to the county's 100,000 residents, with the help of volunteers. Solid-waste officials have set up five neighborhood drop sites around the county since April. When the project is complete, or- ganizers plan to have 20 drop sites scattered throughout the county. According to the plan, church- es, nonprofit organizations and won't work, according to Frank Wentzel, county recycling coordi- nator. "We're educating folks about the new program," he said. "Some of our residents were used to a curbside program. For others, it's a new service." So far, civic groups in four cit- ies and two fraternal organiza- tions have stepped forward to sponsor sites. The Inverness Highlands South & West Civic Association has been maintain- ing a recycling site for about a month. The center collects alu- minum and steel cans, glass, newsprint, polyethylene teraph- thalate and high-density poly- ethylene. Organization leaders said they hope to break even on the sale of recyclables but are undertaking the project as a community ser- vice. "At our regular meeting, some people said it was too much trouble, we should let the gov- ernment handle it," said associa- tion spokesman Lee Cloward. "But I told them sometimes it's very necessary for us to get in- volved personally." Citrus County now spends about $300,000 per year on its curbside program but reaches only 15,000 households through- out the county. Much of that funding came from a $27 million state grant program established to encourage recycling and boost the statewide recycling rate to 30 percent. State solid-waste officials re- ported in January that Florida reached the 30-percent goal. Lawmakers this spring tried to divert the grant program for other causes, but a last-minute intervention by Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles saved the pro- gram for another year. Still, it appears state recycling grants are doomed, and the county cannot afford to continue the curbside program, said Sus- an Metcalfe, solid-waste director for Citrus County. "We have to design a program that is sustainable into the fu- ture,'' Metca]fe said. "We're not going to be able to afford to do things the way we're doing them now." · service groups will sponsor and maintain each site. In exchange, proceeds from the sale of recyclables will be given to the sponsoring organi- zation. Citrus Recycling Co., a local recycler, receives $57 per con- tainer to pick up the material. The company writes the county a check for the recyclables, based on price quotes in nation- al publications. The county then sends the money to the sponsor- ing group. The program is expanding de- spite the skepticism of a small minority of residents who said a voluntary neighborhood system End ;amc K-PAC AUTO TARPER