The head of the Waste Management Authority has new spending power, thanks to a recent vote taken by the agency’s board of directors. Board members accepted the recommendations of the agency’s chief financial officer to increase Executive Director Roger Merritt’s spending limit to a quarter million dollars.
Up until the time of the vote, Merritt could authorize payments up to $100,000. Chief Financial Officer Darryl Griffith assured the board that raising the limit would bring the agency into line with an acquisition threshold set by the federal government.
Adopting a proposal to revise Waste Management’s procurement policies and procedures made the change possible. Griffith’s proposal also stated that expenditures exceeding $250,000 would require board approval.
Board Chairman Keith Richards asked if the procurement policies are in line with local procurement policies. Griffith said that where local policies are stricter than those of the feds, the local practice would be followed.
“You have to see procurement policy as a living and breathing thing,” the chief financial officer said.
Griffith’s reply seemed to reassure the chairman. “We need to see more wholesome processes,” Richards said.
Federal funding played into another of the six action items raised at the Oct. 4 meeting. A portion of the $4.15 million wastewater infrastructure project at Krause Lagoon comes from the federal government. As the board voted to award a contract to clean and insulate the treatment plant’s interceptor pipes, Richards stressed the importance of getting the work done in a timely manner.
Board member Derek Gabriel, who also serves as the territory’s Public Works commissioner, said he would like to arrange a walk-through inspection before the work begins to make clear what’s to be done and how.
Of the three remaining action items, two were left unresolved. Merritt asked the board to table consideration of the Airport Road Force Main project on St. Thomas. The director said the agency is waiting for an extension of the timeline initially set to complete the project, at an estimated cost of $800,000.
Merritt also asked that the board move discussion of approving interim contracts for sewage water collection into executive session. The board agreed, but did not report out on any action taken at the end of the closed-door discussion, said Waste Management spokeswoman Lorna Minkoff.
A vote of approval was passed, however, to pay haulers moving effluent from the Vessup Treatment Plant to the plant operating at Mangrove Lagoon. Waste Management took the Vessup plant offline in 2018.
Since then, haulers have been working under contract to transfer wastewater to the Mangrove Lagoon Treatment Plant. Board members approved a payment of $131,500.
