GREENFIELD — With the City Council’s approval, the city took its final step Wednesday toward executing its $2 million Environmental Protection Agency grant that will fund the city’s transition to an automated single-stream recycling program.

Despite initial approval at January’s council meeting, a formal City Council vote was still required to expend the funds to begin the multi-year project, which will involve purchasing new trucks, developing a ordinances in regards to automated collection and public outreach to educated residents ahead of the new collection practice.

The deadline to execute the grant was March 1, which necessitated the council’s approval Wednesday, if the city wanted to move forward.

Councilors, though, held a long discussion on amending the financial order to remove language referencing the transformation of the manual, dual-stream collection to an automated, single-stream collection program, which was brought forward by Precinct 2 Councilor Rachel Gordon and supported by Precinct 1 Councilor Katherine Golub and Precinct 5 Councilor Marianne Bullock.

They explained the city’s ordinances are developed around dual-stream recycling and approving the amended financial order language may prevent legal issues down the road. Additionally, some councilors said they still had questions about the future costs of switching to single-stream recycling.

“We received new info about the long-term financial impacts this could possibly have for Greenfield,” Golub said, noting she spoke with the head of Division of Local Services’ Municipal Finance Bureau. “I think we have a financial responsibility to spend just a little bit more time discerning how the process is laid out, whether we do dual-stream or single-stream.”

The grant award stems from the EPA’s newly established Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grant Program, known as SWIFR. Greenfield was among the 25 grant awardees out of more than 330 applicants nationwide, and the only recipient in New England, according to grant writer Athena Bradley.

The $2.05 million grant will require a match of roughly $880,000 — this will largely be a soft match through salaries. Altogether, the money will fund the acquisition of a new fleet of automated collection vehicles, new collection bins for residents (provided free of charge), and a staff person to assist with the education and implementation of the recycling program, according to Bradley. The new collection carts will be able to store up to five times more recyclable material, eliminating the need for multiple units.

Following January’s discussion, councilors and residents asked the Department of Public Works and Director Marlo Warner II to look into fuel costs, given that by shifting to single-stream collection, the city would need to haul materials to Berlin, Connecticut, rather than Springfield.

In data shared with the council and public, Warner’s department found automated, single stream vehicles collecting “commingled” recyclables every other week would cost the city an additional $49,743 a year for processing costs (and fuel and driver time) for hauling materials to the single stream processing facility. If the city continues with the dual stream recycling program, three automated vehicles would be required to collect paper one week for the entire city and containers the next, for an additional cost of $92,810 annually because of the need to hire another driver, plus fuel and maintenance for the third recycling vehicle needed for collection, according to Bradley. Additional carts would also be required for dual stream recycling.

Bullock said the proposed amendment would align the financial order’s language with the city’s ordinances, which will provide more time for the city to decide its future.

“I also think if we’re deleting language for approving an expenditure to make it align with our current ordinance and the current grant, that seems like a very safe amendment to support,” she said. “All it does is make it align with our current charter ordinance and allow for there to potentially be more discussion about it.”

Council Vice President Sheila Gilmour, however, disagreed and said changing the language of a financial order is something she hasn’t come across in her time on the council and they should stick with the language city officials have laid out.

“If we pass this amendment, I don’t know what that does for the grant. I don’t know if that jeopardizes our chances of being able to move forward … I know it’s obvious that we would have to change the ordinance, which we can do in the space of a month or two and that wouldn’t be a big deal.” Gilmour said. “I don’t have anyone sitting in front of me, telling me with any legal authority that we’re allowed to do this. It’s always been my understanding and my practice that we don’t.”

City Council President John Bottomley noted the council’s parliamentarian, who spoke with the city’s lawyer, also said the motion could not be amended.

“I would like to speak for a very different reason why the language should stay as written: because I trust the work that was done by our professionals that we hire to do this work,” Bottomley said. “The funding for this project to go forward was to convert to single-stream, and that’s what it pays for. So, I believe the intent of what the mayor put forward, of what the DPW put has put forward, is to convert to single-stream.”

“It’s an incredible achievement [the city’s staff] got over $2 million to do that,” Bottomley continued, adding it’s been “frustrating” to watch city employees’ work be disregarded. “One of the most consistent people in all of those departments has been Director Warner, who’s, over and over again, presented us with reliable, transparent information. I just have to put out there that I totally trust him and his department.”

Speaking to the council, Warner said city staff have “done a lot of precursor work” and they will continue collecting dual-stream recycling in the first year of the grant because the city will need to wait for vehicles to come in, which will give them time to amend the city’s ordinances.

“We will have to change our ordinance if we go to single-stream, but the ordinance remains in place as we limp our dual-stream trucks by,” Warner said. “So we’re not in violation of the ordinance starting tonight or March 1; we’re still going to be picking dual-stream with our current vehicles for one year. That gives us one year to develop the ordinance.”

With the March 1 deadline rapidly approaching and three years’ worth of work laid out in the grant, Warner said it is time for get things rolling, especially with the wealth of information the DPW has given.

“For lack of a better term, it’s go time … I think the DPW has gone above and beyond and given more information than requested of us,” Warner said to the council. “I’m hearing the long game wasn’t looked at and I’m afraid to say that I looked at the long game first … we’ve looked at it upside down, sideways, every way you can.”

When the amendment came up for a vote, it failed, 6-3, with Golub, Gordon and Bullock voting in support. When the original order came up for a vote, it passed unanimously.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.