DPW to re-hire Hiney as off-island consultant

The Department of Public Works plans to re-hire Steve Hiney as a consultant even if the former Solid Waste Management program director is off-island to seek medical treatment for a bad back in Florida.

Sold Waste Management program assistant manager Robert Jordan yesterday said that the DPW plans to tap anew the services of his former boss, this time as a consultant—a mere month after Hiney resigned because of health problems.

Jordan said he believes a new contract for Hiney has already been approved by DPW Secretary Juan S. Reyes and is now being routed through the department’s accounting divisions for financial and other related matters.

Before his resignation, Hiney worked for the Solid Waste Management program for two years and was in charge of the program’s operations at the Lower Base Transfer Station, Marpi landfill, and Puerto Rico dumpsite.

Jordan said that Hiney, who is in his 50s, has been in and out of Florida’s Veterans Hospital for surgery on a back injury he first sustained while he was in the U.S. Navy.

He said Hiney told them he would need six months to a year to recuperate from the surgery, hence the reason why he is staying put in Florida for the meantime.

Jordan said DPW has been keen on keeping Hiney’s services because he is still very much in touch with the projects in the CNMI. “And we need to keep him on as consultant,” he said.

He said Hiney doesn’t really need to be physically present in the DPW office on Saipan because with present technology, such as webcams, e-mail, and video conferencing, the office could readily get in touch with Hiney even though he is in Florida.

“He’s has done a lot of writing for ongoing contracts and closed contracts. …We’re keeping him as a consultant for a year,” said Jordan.

Jordan said he is now sharing the responsibilities of handling the operations of the Solid Waste Management project with colleague Blas Mafnas.

Hiney earlier reported that the Marpi sanitary landfill is not filling up as fast as previously projected due to an improved recycling program on island. He said the first of the two existing landfill cells is only 40 percent filled and the other one remains empty.

He said they are actually doing better than expected and one of the things that they have really been successful with is in recycling. Hiney cited that almost 90 percent of garment waste is being recycled. Authorities have also designed ways to recover green waste, plastics, heavy metals, and aluminum cans.

The CNMI government opened the Marpi landfill in February 2003 after over 15 years of struggling to close the Puerto Rico dumpsite.