Page 28 - SeptOct2021Vol33No3

TCAPWA EVENTS AND HIGHLIGHTS
Upper East TN Branch Meets in June By Klair Kimmey

The Upper East Branch meeting was held in person at Victor
Ashe Park in Knoxville on June 17. The gathering of 30 Public
Works professionals were there for a panel discussion on Junk
and Brush Collection and other Gnarly Solid Waste Issues. Some
however were there for the Disc Golf Tournament which followed
the lunch meeting.
Bryon Fortner, Upper East Branch Director, thanked the many
sponsors for making the meeting a success. Stringfellow provided
the lunch. Door prizes were provided by The Pete Store, LDA, and
Mattern & Craig.
Before the panel discussion got underway, Nicholas Bradshaw,
Chapter Vice President, shared information about upcoming
events, specifically the November Annual Conference in
Memphis. He also touched on scholarship applications, award Many thanks to the panelists (left to right): Rachel Butzler, Rodney Deel,
nominations, TPWI, and PWX in St. Louis. He emphasized that Marian Bracknell, and Cynthia Mormile. Below: Equipment on display was
the best way to know what is going on with the Chapter is to visit provided by Stringfellow.
the website, tennessee.apwa.net.
The panel consisted of Rodney Deel, City of Kingsport; Marian
Bracknell, City of Sevierville; Rachel Butzler, City of Knoxville;
and Cynthia Mormile, Senior Project Manager with MSW
Consultants. Branch Director Bryon Fortner gave the panelists a
series of questions that might be asked in advance of the meeting.
Anthony Hill, City of Johnson City, was a panel participant via
email.
Questions included the following.
What are the most challenging solid waste issues you are
seeing? Workforce issues; volume of material going up; availability
of truck parts for maintenance; homeless issues; bulk items.
Do any of you contract your services? Residential, mulching
and landfill; disposal of household garbage; two of the represented
municipalities do not contract out.
How are things going with Bulk Collection? Contamination
of materials was discussed as a big problem; Contractors leaving
materials when they should be hauling off their own waste; fees
for pickups over allowable amounts. Rodney Deel shared a lot of
the proactive measures Kingsport has put in place to address these
issues. Deel said, “We have a solution for everything they want to do.
If they will just talk to us first. Education.”
Equipment and employees – are you fully equipped and
staffed? This is a common problem for all the municipalities
represented. Most indicated not fully staffed.
At the end of the meeting Fortner asked everyone present
to contribute to the discussion about recruiting and retaining
employees. These were some of the points mentioned: salary
studies are underway; full-time recruiters are necessary (The
Pete Store); work hard to not get behind with needed number of
employees; increasing pay; benefit package important; flex hours;
accommodations for working from home vs. coming to an office; and
education of employees and recruits on the importance of not just
the salary provided but also the benefits such as retirement savings.
Following lunch, a group of six (myself included) gathered our
discs (they are not frisbees) and hit the links for the Disc Golf
Tournament. It was a blast! I was by far the worst one out there but
still managed to enjoy myself. $70 was raised for Second Harvest
and only two discs were lost in the rough.

28 TPW September/October 2021