Posted: 3/8/05
Deadline looming for garbage contract extension
Board meets with La Crosse officials
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Houston County commissioners have until the end of March to decide whether to extend the countyís contract with La Crosse County Solid Waste Disposal System beyond 2008.
The deadline was decided after representatives from the two sides met on March 1.
Four people attended from La Crosse County: board chairman Steve Doyle, commissioner Shirley Holman, attorney David Lange, and solid waste administrator Brian Tippetts.
Houston County Zoning Administrator Rick Frank felt that the liability questions were answered well at the joint meeting.
The current Solid Waste Disposal Agreement lasts until 2008. La Crosse and Houston Counties have have been meeting for more than a year to negotiate an amendment to extend the agreement to June 30, 2023.
Houston County signed a 20 year garbage contract with La Crosse County in 1988. Under the agreement, garbage is sent to an Xcel Energy garbage burning facility on French Island. Landfill and demolition material goes to a landfill in La Crosse County.
The amendment is needed because Xcel Energy had to retrofit its incinerator two years ago due to new federal air quality standards. The cost of the retrofit was $10.9 million. Houston County was charged $240,000 of that, which would be covered by payments of $20,000 over 20 years. Those payments are coming from a $5 per ton rebate that La Crosse County is giving Houston County for material that is brought to its landfill. It is a reward to the county for using the incinerator, Frank said. Other counties like Wabasha, which do not use the burning facility but instead use a landfill for all their garbage, are not getting the rebate, he said.
Frank will be meeting with garbage haulers on March 14 to get their input on whether to renew the contract with La Crosse County. Itís good to get the issue resolved now, Frank feels, in case haulers need to change their operation.
There are pros and cons with the contract, Frank said. Houston County contracts for garbage hauling from its five drop sites with Richards Sanitation. The contract requires that all the garbage be taken to Xcelís incinerator on French Island, and landfill material be taken to the La Crosse County landfill.
The county also requires that cities and townships seeking bids for garbage hauling specify that the material must go to Xcel and the La Crosse County landfill. That makes the bidding more competitive, Frank said. Small haulers can therefore compete with bigger haulers that have their own landfills. The system also controls the flow of garbage, and La Crosse has a hazardous waste disposal facility that is available to Houston County residents for a fee.
The biggest downside is that it is more expensive to burn garbage, Frank said. Disposal through landfills is about half the cost of burning, Frank said. ìThereís a lot of good things about the program too but thereís a price to pay too.î
At the regular county commissionersí meeting that morning, Kelleher said he was concerned that Xcel is burning railroad ties. He doesnít want the county to be liable for any lawsuits that could result from that.
Attorney Dick Nowlin of Minneapolis who works for Houston County on this issue, said the county has three options: sign the 15-year contract extension, contract with somebody else, or not sign a contract and let the haulers go too whoever they want to. A lot of counties are doing the latter and getting out of the waste-direction business, he said.
That puts increased responsibility on the haulers, Kelleher said.
The major downside of that is that if La Crosse County Solid Waste Disposal System goes out of business, a monopoly could come in, Nowlin said. There are no small landfill owners left, he said. ìItís been very good to have La Crosse in this business.î
Other business
ï At the regular board meeting, commissioners heard a sales pitch on the new jail from Aaron Rittenhouse of Johnson Controls in Madison, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse showed a television newscast that was done on a school his company built in Zimmerman, Minnesota, that used a lot of energy-saving technology. Johnson Controls would also be able to serve as construction manager to oversee the entire project, such as the architects and construction engineers. They would charge five percent of the project cost for this, Rittenhouse said.
ï Commissioners approved a three-year contract with Law Enforcement Labor Services #60, which is the union for jailer/dispatchers. Effective January 1, 2005, it calls for a three percent raise for each of the first two years, a two percent raise for the first nine months of 2007, then a three percent raise for the final three months of the contract. Longevity pay will increase by $10 per month for employees with five or more years of experience. The contribution for family and dependent insurance coverage will be $210 in 2005, $220 in 2006, and $230 in 2007.
ï Commissioners approved a budget reconciliation of $2,544 with the Minnesota Regional Coronerís Office at Regina Medical Center in Hastings. The Other Professional Services portion was budgeted for $100 but cost $2,200 for work done by a forensic anthropologist on skeletal remains found in Hokah in December of 2003.
The coronerís staff investigated 55 deaths in Houston County in 2004, approved 21 cremations, and performed 12 autopsies.
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