DANVILLE — Officials with WITS Recycling hope to revive its household recycling service as they pursue an alternative building arrangement that the city may be willing to consider.

Trina Bailey, regional manager for WITS at 1507 N. Bowman Ave., Danville, said the nonprofit recycling organization is "fighting really hard" to keep its household recycling program going, and is now planning to buy a storage building that would be placed on its existing property for the temporary storage of recyclable materials before they are shipped off for processing.

Bailey said organization officials will resume working on that alternative plan after the July 4 holiday weekend.

"We will have to do things minimally compared to what we did before ... but something's better than nothing," she said.

About two weeks ago, the city of Danville's code enforcement department shut down the organization's household recycling portion of its operation because of health and safety code concerns.

Inspectors found code violations in the part of the building that once housed the former Eagles grocery, and had been home to WITS household recycling efforts. Recyclers dropped off their materials in bins in front of the building, while inside, those materials were temporarily stored while workers sorted and loaded them for shipment.

The violations included no functioning sprinkler system, no hot water in the rest rooms, some electrical issues, inadequate fire extinguishers, inadequate emergency lights and no alarm to notify the fire department of a fire.

WITS did not have a certificate of occupancy from the city for that portion of the building, but the city did find it in full compliance with the smaller, north-end portion of the building that once was a package liquor store.

In that space, WITS runs its computer recycling operation, and that program, which is its main mission, continues with no violations or limitations.

State code requires any building with a sprinkler system to have it functioning, but the system at WITS is not and requires tens of thousands of dollars of repairs, according to WITS officials, who do not have the funds to get it working.

So, the city has ordered the organization to clear the portion of the building that's in violation, and WITS employees have been doing that.

John Heckler, director of the city's public development department, said inspectors will visit the site next week to check on their progress. Heckler said his department will consider working with WITS on the alternative plan for an outside storage building, but would need to know the size, the material it would be made of and where it would be placed before the city could sign off on it.

"The concept is one we will consider, but there are details that need to be worked out, and we are not there yet," he said.

There's no date yet for WITS to begin accepting materials again, because, Bailey said, it will take some time for the organization to raise the estimated $10,000 for a separate storage building. But, she added, it's a lot less than coming up with the more than $100,000 estimate to repair the sprinkler system.

Bailey said even if the alternative plan works out, WITS will still pursue, on a long-term schedule, repairing the main building.

"The facility itself is perfect for what we do. The location is great, and the amount of storage is great, and the docks are perfect," she said of the now-closed portion of the site.

Heckler said the city is glad to hear that WITS will try to address the main building long term.

He said the city believes that WITS fills a recycling need in the area, and the city would be more than happy to work with them as long as they can meet the health and safety requirements of the building.

"We do support them staying in the community," he said.