In a presentation to Mayor Wen-Tsan Cheng at the municipal administrative meeting on the 18th, the Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection (TYDEP) reported that the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) had granted funds for building the new offices for the Luzhu and Pingzhen district cleaning squadrons. EPA will fund 50% of the construction fees of the Luzhu District Squadron Office at NT$161 million and Pingzhen District Squadron Office at NT$174 million. A resource recycling and storage site will also be integrated into each office to turn them into the brand-new demonstration offices for the district squadrons of the Environmental Maintenance and Inspection Division (EMID). After the presentation, Mayor Chen also directed TYDEP and EMID to proceed with tendering as quickly as possible to ensure their completion by the end of the next year.
According to TYDEP Director-General Dr. Li-Teh Lu, after the city was promoted into a municipality, TYCG formed the EMID by integrating all district cleaning squadrons. As the condition of squadron offices was inconsistent, TYDEP immediately assessed and established the improvement program and strived for funds from Mayor Cheng to progressively optimize these squadron offices annually. Currently, the squadron office improvement of Taoyuan, Xinwu, Guishan, and Daxi districts has been completed to provide squadron members with a well-equipped and comfortable work environment.
According to TYDEP, the parking site of the Luzhu District Squadron office is currently located under Guomen Footbridge and Zhongzheng North Road Bridge on Chunri Road (Provincial Highway 4). As both locations are at the end of footbridges, the employee lounge and parking area are built with containers or prefabricated buildings, and assessment showed that onsite spatial improvement is difficult, an active search for new locations for relocation began. After many negotiations, the military eventually agreed to provide 1.46 hectares of land at the barrack in Dahua North Street near Dazhu Exchange to plan the new squadron office. Then, after the property transfer and land use change were completed monthly, TYDEP began to strive for funds from EPA in 2020. After the design and project review, the EPA approved the funds this August (2021). The estimated construction cost is about NT$161 million, including 50% funded by EPA. The new office will include an office area of about 661m2 and a resource recycling and storage site of about 1983m2 for members of the Luzhu District Squadron to work in a well-equipped and more comfortable environment.
The Pingzhen District Squadron office in southern Taoyuan is located under the Zhongfeng Road bridge next to the district office. As the bridge must be demolished for the Taoyuan Underground Railway Project, TYDEP also actively searched appropriate locations for the squadron office. TTYDEP eventually acquired 1.5 hectares of land from the military located at the original barrack land on Luguang Road through ceaseless effort. The land use change has been completed and EPA design funding was granted in 2020. EPA granted funds for the office this August (2021). The estimated construction cost is NT$174 million, with 50% funded by EPA. The new office will include an office area of about 727m2 and a resource recycling and storage site of about 1983 m2 for the Pingzhen District Squadron members to work in a well-equipped and more comfortable environment.
Mayor Cheng also mentioned, he cares very much about the work condition and benefits of cleaning squadron members and thus has completed 10 measures and 5 innovations for them.
The 10 benefit measures include: increasing the cleaning bonus from NT$6,000 to NT$8,000; adding the resource cycling bonus of NT$5,000 each year to reward their effort; issuing the evening snack fee at NT$80 each day; organizing the 3-day and 2-night environmental education activity and year-end reunion every year; adding 383 vacancies filled through opening recruitment; abolishing the previous trainee system for those qualified for the job during probation to become full-time members; striving for donations to buy insurance for squadron members by establishing the environmental safety fund with private groups to enhance member protection; extending the Taiwan Traveler Card system ahead of other municipalities; granting OT pay plus compensatory leave for working on holidays also applicable on Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival; and increasing the vacancies of model cleaning squadron members to boost morale.
The 5 innovations include active renovation of squadron offices to improve the work environment for squadron members and integration of resource recycling and storage site to squadron offices to strive for funding from the central government; budgets for replacing garbage trucks with hybrid models every year; promotion of the quick kitchen waste fermentation program to diversify kitchen waste treatment; striving for subsidization to buy large crushers from the central government to replace the manual treatment of large garbage like spring mattresses with machinery; establishment of recycling stations at Taoyuan and Daxi district squadron offices to promote pre-owned furniture recycling.
Lifestyle has changed alongside the pandemic’s development. The rise of the stay-at-home economy has also boosted the increase in garbage volume and recycling load. The two new squadron offices approved for construction this year have included the resource recycling and storage site. Apart from expanding Taoyuan’s resource recycling and storage capacity, they can become the hub of resource recovery between northern and southern Taiwan to demonstrate the new functions and planning diversity of these two squadron offices to enhance the flexibility of traditional cleaning squadrons.