Optimists’ Recycling Plant No Longer in the Dumps

An Escondido service club that was forced to close its nonprofit recycling center earlier this year has turned its dark cloud into a silver lining.

The Noon Optimist Club announced Thursday that its recycling center on West Washington Avenue--operated by the club for 18 years to earn funds for youth groups--has been sold to the for-profit Escondido Sales Yard, situated about a block and a half away.

Club president Stan Oleksy said the Escondido firm “is the best deal we could hope for” in gaining continued funding for the many youth groups the club sponsors.

Oleksy said the agreement with Escondido Sales Yard “will bring in more money for our projects than we made from operating the recycling center.” That prediction is based on an expected increase in volume because of the yard’s larger recycling business.

Under the agreement, recycling equipment and vehicles used at the Optimists’ facility were purchased by the sales yard to be used at the new location.

Patrick Hubbard, manager of the Escondido Sales Yard, said the recycling business generated by the club will be credited to an account opened for it.

In effect, Noon Optimist Club will be gaining more funds “without all the hassle,” Oleksy said.

An auditor hired by the Optimists is still trying to piece together the financial history of the Optimist recycling operations, which went out of business in January after several management changes failed to make the center turn a profit. The audit was prompted after club officers raised questions about thousands of dollars of recycling center funds unaccounted for in sketchy records kept by a club member who operated the center.

The center was the chief source of money for the Optimists’ many civic projects, ranging from a youth fishing day to an anti-drug program, Oleksy said. Sale of the Optimist recycling equipment and “good will” brought in enough money to settle current debts of the defunct recycling center, he said. He declined to reveal the sale price.

Hubbard said that Escondido Sales Yard has been operating in the city for about 25 years, dealing in new and used building materials. About a year ago, a 3.5-acre recycling center was added next to the sales yard at 1428 W. Mission Ave.

Oleksy said that Hubbard had pledged to reopen recycling bins at all Escondido schools where discards finance extracurricular activities and to credit the Noon Optimist Club account for all new business members brought into the sales yard recycling operation.

Several companies made offers to take over the club’s recycling operations, Oleksy said, “but this was by far the best for us, better than we could have hoped for.”

The joint recycling operations began Thursday, Oleksy said.

And, as a bonus, he said, Hubbard plans to become a member of the Noon Optimist Club.