AUGUSTA — City councilors are scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss adding to the city’s recycling offerings for residents and making what now is a one-way portion of Green Street open to two-way traffic.

City officials and others studying ways to improve recycling options and the cost of doing so said Augusta may be able to offer more drop-off recycling to residents “fairly inexpensively and quickly,” according to Lesley Jones, public works director, and Ralph St. Pierre, finance director and assistant city manager.

St. Pierre said possible options include the addition of single-stream recycling at city recyclable drop-off areas at the Hatch Hill landfill or the public works site off North Street.

In single-stream recycling, users don’t have to sort their various recyclables. Instead, they can put all recyclable items such as cardboard, glass and plastic together into one container. The container is then hauled off, for a fee, and its contents are sorted off-site to be recycled separately.

“We’ve done some research and think we can, fairly inexpensively, accept dropped off recyclables single-stream,” St. Pierre said.

St. Pierre and Jones visited the recycling center in Hallowell and Riverside Disposal’s Chelsea site, and they collected information about a new pay-as-you-throw rubbish and curb-side single-stream collection program recently instituted in Waterville. They also met with waste-and-recyclables firm Eco-Maine and are having a consulting firm analyze the city’s current recycling program to make recommendations for improvements.

Jones noted having city crews pick up more recyclables as part of curb-side collection and adding recycling infrastructure at Hatch Hill would require a larger investment and probably should be considered as part of the city’s annual budget process.

Some towns, such as Manchester and Richmond, offer single-stream recycling to their residents.

Councilors also are scheduled to hear updated information regarding a request of an attorney with an office on Green Street, Walter McKee, to return the short stretch of Green Street between Water and State streets from one-way to two-way traffic.

At a previous council discussion, councilors asked the city staff to research the issue to determine when and why the section became one-way and to look into traffic accident data about that area. Also, the council wanted to know whether there is enough sight distance to the north, looking downhill on Water Street, to allow traffic to exit Green Street onto Water Street.

The city’s Traffic Calming Committee recommends the city restore two-way traffic on that section of the street.

That section of Green Street, according to a memo from Matthew Nazar, director of development, and Lionel Cayer, city engineer, was switched from two-way to one-way traffic by a council vote in 1963. No explanation or reasons was recorded for the change, they noted. They said the city does not have accident data for the location prior to 1963, when it was converted to one-way traffic.

Cayer estimated traffic pulling out of Green Street onto Water Street would “conservatively have a (sight) distance of 185 feet from the Green Street intersection.”

The city also has heard from two employees who work at an office building at 9 Green St., who said making that section of Green Street two-way would make it easier for them, co-workers and clients.

Councilors plan to meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in council chambers at Augusta City Center. They are also scheduled to:

• discuss a neighbor’s concerns about a dilapidated property on Middle Road;

• hear an update on downtown policing from Deputy Police Chief Jared Mills;

• discuss creating an ordinance regulating clear-cutting of trees in the city;

• discuss a resolution asking the Maine Historic Preservation Commission to perform an assessment survey of the city’s downtown area, the result of which could be used to support a request to have the area designated a National Historic District;

• hear a request to discontinue adding fluoride to the drinking water;

• discuss changes to the standards of the Riggs Brook Village zoning district;

• and discuss proposed zoning changes to allow the former Viles home, now owned by the Elsie & William Viles Foundation, to be used as a conference center by nonprofit organizations.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj