City Urged to Act Quickly on Recycle Center : Trash: A disposal company wants municipal help in financing the estimated $30-million project. It warns that the facility could fail if other cities get their projects under way first.

Officials must move quickly if the city is to compete in the regional race to develop trash separating and recycling centers, its trash disposal company warned in a report considered by the City Council this week.

In a June 5 feasibility study for a proposed Materials Recovery Facility, or MRF (commonly pronounced murf), Athens Disposal Co. urged the city to help finance the estimated $30-million project so it can begin operating by early 1995.

On Tuesday, the council unanimously voted to pay Diamond Bar-based consultants Kleinfelder Inc. as much as $9,000 to complete a review of the proposal, which will include preliminary engineering and construction costs for off-site street improvements totaling $1 million. Last year, the city paid the firm $6,000 for Phase I of the review.

The council will hold a study session Aug. 13 to decide whether to help finance the project.

The city is considering the facility, which is expected to generate from $2 million to $6.5 million annually in fees, as a way to recoup the $4.8 million it will lose when the BKK landfill closes in November, 1995.

Meanwhile, the City of Industry is undergoing an environmental review process for a plan to build what could be the biggest MRF in the country. MRFs have also been proposed in Azusa, Fullerton, Irwindale, Ontario, Perris and Pomona, and by county officials at the Puente Hills landfill.

The Athens report said that if other trash separating facilities begin operation first, they may secure the trash-hauling contracts from nearby cities.

But Chris Lancaster, a consultant for the City of Industry, said the West Covina site is “absolutely not” a rival.

“There’s so much trash that it will require more than one MRF,” said Lancaster, who is also a Covina councilman. “And that’s still probably not enough.”

He said Industry’s site will also serve as a countywide transfer station, where trash will be placed on trains and shipped to landfills in the California deserts. Industry’s proposal is going through the environmental review stage, which will take from 12 to 18 months to complete, he said.

Athens officials did not return telephone calls, but according to their proposal the company wants the city to underwrite private bonds to pay construction costs estimated at $24 million. It also asked the city to buy land for the facility and lease it at a reduced rate. Athens wants to put the facility on San Bernardino Road, between Azusa Canyon Road and Irwindale Avenue, on 9.3 acres that are home to a chicken farm and a lumber company.

The land would cost more than $6 million, said Mike Miller, manager of the city’s community services division.

Councilman Ben Wong said he will support Athens’ proposal if it is financially feasible because the city desperately needs to make up for the loss of BKK revenue.

But he was concerned that the council decision to restrict construction sites to industrial and manufacturing zones limits other companies, such as BKK, from submitting proposals. BKK is located in a residential zone.