Kevin Roche Named New General Manager at Regional Waste Systems

Experience with landfill management and recycling cited

PORTLAND – The Board of Directors at Regional Waste Systems has appointed Kevin H. Roche as the new general manager of the waste-to-energy facility serving 27 communities throughout southern Maine.

Roche of Binghamton, N.Y., has served for the past four years as the Deputy Commissioner of Public Works in upstate New York’s Broome County, where he managed solid waste operations that included a 900-ton per day landfill and an $11 million budget.

Roche was selected from a pool of more than 60 applicants as part of a hiring process that has been ongoing since the departure of longtime RWS General Manager Charles Foshay last year. Finance Director Rocco Marzilli served as interim general manager.

The RWS Board approved Roche’s appointment in a unanimous vote on Thursday.

RWS Board Chairman James Cloutier said Roche’s diverse background and strong reputation made him the clear choice to lead RWS into the future. Roche will oversee 62 employees and a $24 million operating budget. He will start at RWS on October 11.

“Kevin Roche possesses a number of personal and professional attributes that really stood out,” Cloutier said. “He has always had an excellent relationship with public officials, he’s a good communicator and he’s innovative. Plus, he has a strong, positive belief in well-managed, environmentally sound operations.”

Cloutier said Roche is well suited to handle the challenges facing RWS, such as the ashfill expansion issue. “He’s faced similar challenges already,” Cloutier said. “Bringing Kevin on board is a very positive step for RWS.”

The search committee, chaired by South Portland City Manager Jeffrey Jordan and composed of members of the board and the public, also deserves special praise for “a thorough and thoughtful process,” Cloutier added.

The committee initially interviewed six candidates, and the Board interviewed the three finalists over the summer.

Roche has more than 15 years of experience in solid waste and recycling in both the public and the private sector.

As Director of Solid Waste in Broome County, he oversaw the design and construction of a new 99-acre country landfill. Roche is credited with saving his division $300,000 by pushing for a design change that utilized scrap tire chips rather than stone in a drainage layer. He also was responsible for gaining approval for a vertical expansion of an old landfill cell that created 1.5 million yards of additional capacity – worth an estimated $33 million in airspace revenue.

In addition, Roche led the effort in 2002 to switch from a traditional two-stream recycling program and offer the first country-wide single-stream recycling program in the Northeast, significantly reducing processing and collection costs.

Prior to Broome County, in the mid-1990s, Roche gained private sector experience by launching and operating a full-service recycling operation in Rochester, N.Y. that included collection, sorting, bailing and marketing of industrial scrap. The business grew from two to 14 employees before being sold in 1999.

Roche, who has a Class A Commercial Driving Licenseand is an experienced public speaker, is a 1989 graduate of the University of Buffalo, where he received a bachelor’s in geography and urban planning. He also holds an associate’s degree in business administration.

Regional Waste Systems is a non-profit solid waste management corporation that is owned and controlled by 21 cities and towns, and also has six associate member towns. RWS also is the largest municipal recycling organization in the state. Established in 1974 after Portland, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough decided to form a cooperative to handle their waste disposal, today RWS is governed by a 28-member board, consisting of officials appointed from member towns.

Communities served by RWS are: Corporate Members - Bridgton, Cape Elizabeth, Casco, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Gray, Harrison, Hollis, Limington, Lyman, North Yarmouth, Ogunquit, Portland, Pownal, Scarborough, South Portland, Waterboro, Windham, and Yarmouth; Associate Members – Baldwin, Hiram, Naples, Parsonsfield, Porter, Standish.

RWS accepts solid waste and recycled materials from these communities and also has a comprehensive, state-of-the-art recycling program with more than 100 recycling bins in 60 locations. For more information on RWS, visit the RWS web site, www.regionalwaste.org.

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