Ad Hoc Exchange Committee Ready to Submit Plans to ORS Board

by Lin McNulty

An aerial map outlining the area of the old (and new) Exchange.

Since early June, a dedicated group of concerned, enthusiastic citizens have been meeting on a somewhat regular basis to come up with a design for the new Exchange following a fire in February which destroyed the beloved Orcas icon.

Facilitated by Fred Klein, the original meeting was open to the public. Eventually a core group of volunteers took on specific tasks, investigating possible site plans and design options, among a plethora of other details. They formulated viable options for an immediate or interim re-use facility and to consider traffic flow, operations, cost, safety, accessibility, parking, drainage issues, and square footage.

On Wednesday, September 25, Mark DeTray, David Kau, Fred Klein from the committee will submit three possible site plans to the Orcas Recycling Services (ORS) Board. Terrill Chang the facility design consultant retained to help formulate the site Master Plan for the transfer station, will also be present at this meeting, as well as meeting directly with the ad hoc committee on Thursday.

The site plans being presented to the ORS Board are preliminary. Not only does the Board need to select one of the plans (or send it back to the committee for re-work), the plan still needs to pass muster with the County, which requires a Master Plan of the transfer station operations,  of which an Exchange-type facility may be a part.

Although some drawings of a possible building will be shown to the Board, there are still many options under consideration, such as utilizing a membrane structure, utilizing existing lumber on the site, and/or incorporating roll-off boxes into a structure. Drainage on the existing site is also a consideration as any future construction is planned.

Much work remains. Although a new Exchange may not be up and running as soon as we would like, not to fear, there is a dedicated group of volunteers on the case.