Douglas County's pilot recycling program uses Honey Creek Disposal recycling containers like this one. About 56 tons of recyclable materials were collected at four locations during the containers' first six months of use, October 2015 through March 2016, according County Sustainability Coordinator Eileen Horn.

The Douglas County Commission will consider on Wednesday a request to make permanent a pilot recycling program that was introduced last fall.

Commissioners agreed last September to partner with Honey Creek Disposal to spot recycling containers at four locations: the Prairie Moon Waldorf School in Grant Township, Stull United Methodist Church, the Vinland Fairgrounds and Wakarusa Valley School. In a report to commissioners, county sustainability coordinator Eileen Horn writes that 56 tons of recyclable materials worth $4,725 were collected at the sites during the containers’ first six months of use of October through March. The Vinland and Wakarusa sites have been especially popular, often filling two or three times a week.

With that use rate, it is projected the program’s annual cost will be $56,000, or twice the amount estimated. Horn said that after discussions with Honey Creek to contain those costs, it is recommended the county double the number of bins at Prairie Moon and Stull from two to four and at Wakarusa and Vinland from four to eight. The move would reduce the number of collection trips Honey Creek would make to each of the recycling locations at $175 per trip.

Horn’s recommendation was for the county to purchase the added bins at a cost of $14,000, which would reduce the annual operating cost to $36,600.

In other business, the County Commission will consider:

• Awarding contracts totaling $93,284 to Treanor Architects, Mission Electronics, Mission Electronics and Oliver Electric and The Wilson Group to develop cost estimates for renovations to the courtrooms in the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center to be done this year.

• A request for bids concerning the replacement for a bridge dating to 1921 on East 900 Road just less than a half-mile south of Route 458. The Kansas Department of Transportation will reimburse the county for about half of the bridge replacement’s estimated cost of $240,000. The county plans an August construction start.

The Douglas County Commission meets weekly at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. For a complete agenda, visit douglascountyks.org.