PORT ANGELES — Two years after a countywide junk tire removal campaign, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Code Enforcement Team is pitching a similar effort for two West End communities.
County commissioners today will consider a $30,000 agreement with the state Department of Ecology that would fund the coordinated removal of old tires from designated drop-off sites in Forks and Joyce.
“In 2010, we had a clean up out there, which was quite successful,” Clallam County Code Enforcement Manager Rich Sill told commissioners Monday.
“This is a continuation of that. This is the money that comes out of the state for the dollar-per-tire reimbursement.”
If the interagency agreement is approved, the county would bill the state a maximum of $30,000 to haul away old passenger car and light-truck tires from a gravel pit or other temporary holding site.
The tires would be recycled as much as possible before going to a landfill, according to the agreement.
The Sheriff’s Office Community Policing Team would oversee the program. It would allow the disposal of maximum of eight tires per household on a first-come, first-served basis.
The program would augment existing community policing projects for the removal solid waste, junk vehicles and dilapidated mobile homes.
“The hope is to bootstrap some of this cleanup process that we’re doing in conjunction with community policing projects we have going in both those communities right now,” Sill said.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Neighborhood Water Coordinator Al Camin said tire cleanups are a “key component” of community policing.
He added that a group of West End citizens has organized a junk-tire cleanup effort through social media.
“We’re really excited about the fact that this will coincide with the citizen push,” Camin said.
Sill estimated that the cleanups in Forks and Joyce will result in the removal about 10,000 tires.
In 2010, the Ecology-funded, countywide tire removal eradicated more than 100,000 junk tires, Sill said. He added that the project was scaled back this year because of reductions in state funding.
Nearly 8,000 tires were removed from Clallam Bay alone in 2010, Sill said.
Commissioner Mike Doherty said communities that have tire cleanups are “really grateful.”
“At the last Clallam Bay-Sekiu Advisory Council [meeting], they picked three topics they wanted to work on in the next year,” Doherty said.
“Tire removal was one.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.