MINUTES of the May 12, 2010 meeting of the Monroe County
Solid Waste Management Committee
MEMBERS PRESENT: Larry McTaggart, Mike Luethe, Richard Yarrington, and Carol Las.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Adam Hayden
OTHERS PRESENT: Gail Frie-Monroe County Solid Waste Manager, Sue Van GeertruyMonroe County Solid Waste Clerical Assistant, Erik Lietz–Ayres Associates, Jerry Martell-Modern
Disposal, Fred Wegner and Mary Jo Hill.
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER at 9:00 a.m. by Committee Chair Larry McTaggart at the Solid
Waste Administration Building, 20448 Junco Road, Town of Ridgeville.
1. INTRODUCTIONS, SELECTION OF VICE-CHAIR & MEETING DAY & TIME
Nominations were opened for Vice Chair. Carol Las nominated Richard Yarrington, seconded
by Mike Luethe. Motion to close nominations made by Carol Las, seconded by Mike Luethe. All
ayes, motion carried. Richard was declared Vice Chair. Larry asked to postpone setting a
regular meeting time until Adam Hayden could be here. The next meeting will be June 16 at
9:00a.m. here at the landfill office. Regular meeting dates will be decided then.
2. PERIOD OF PUBLIC COMMENT
None brought forward
3. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
Motion by Mike Luethe to approve the minutes of the April 12, 2010 meeting, seconded by
Larry McTaggart. All ayes, motion carried.
4. CURRENT BILLS
Current bills are summarized as follows:
2010 Site II Cell 3
$ 6,829.95
2010 Ridge II Operations
$ 28,310.92
2010 Recycling
$ 1,675.64
2010 Ridge I Closure / LTC
$ 7,736.68
2010 HHW Clean Sweep
$ 4,432.33
2010 Credit Card Charges
$
184.75
Motion by Mike Luethe to approve the bills with the charges from the Norwalk Fire
Department and the Wilton Ambulance Service removed, as presented totaling $49,170.27
seconded by Larry McTaggart. All ayes, motion carried.
5. DEPARTMENTAL OPERATIONS
a) Financial & Waste Volume Reports – Volumes are close to last year. We are up about 34
tons for April and 338 tons year to date.
b) Discussion – Fred Wegner Property Purchase- Gail explained where the land is. If the
county decides to go with a third landfill we would need this property. He doesn’t expect
any decision to be made today but wants the committee to consider this for the future.
Richard asked if any of the land is in the Woodland Forestry Program. Fred stated it is
already in the Forestry program, and the contract for this has seven years left. Richard also
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MINUTES of the May 12, 2010 meeting of the Monroe County
Solid Waste Management Committee
questioned how much Fred wants per acre and Fred stated $4000. Gail asked if Fred would
consider splitting up the parcel or we could sell land we don’t need to an adjacent
landowner. Some of the land could be put in County Forest Land. Carol asked if the price
was set by a realtor and Fred said Mary Jo Hill is the realtor. There is 101.62 acres and Mary
Jo stated the price was determined by comparables. Bare land is about $3000 per acre but
this land has a well and buildings. Our prices follow SW Wisconsin and their land is about
4-5k now. We have no need for the house and there would be a lifetime lease for Fred. There
was discussion on Site III in the next year and a land decision plays into that. If it went to
County Forestry it would be open to the public for hunting. The landfill is not open to public
hunting. Mike Luethe stated that it would hurt the township by coming off the tax roll, but
reselling some of the land would offset that. Richard said that having the land in forestry
would protect the landfill. Fred offered to sell with payments made for 3 years at 6%
interest. Gail will put together a financial plan as part of the project. The well on the
property is 600 feet deep and has casing to 554 or 556 feet. It pumps 72 gallons per minute.
There were questions as to the effect of the other nearby neighbor, they do not want to sell,
other land nearby, which could be looked at for long range planning and would having the
water benefit the landfill. Gail said buying the water makes more sense than poking another
well. Richard asked if the digester needs water, and Gail responded yes at startup and for
cleaning. Larry mentioned the long range plan again and how that would be a good idea.
Mary Jo asked how the budget process works for this kind of thing and was told it starts in
July and finals in November or December.
c) Discussion & Action-Copier Purchase- Sue explained that our present copier was a hand me
down from the Highway Department. We have had it serviced several times but the copies it
makes now are sometimes unreadable. Handouts from E.O. Johnson and Tri-State Business
Products were looked over. They were both for a Canon copier. Tri-State was the lower
quote and for an additional $200.00 dollars it would be able to scan, fax and be hooked up
to the computer. Motion to approve purchase from Tri-State for $1585.00 plus $200.00 for
scan ability made by Richard Yarrington, seconded by Larry McTaggart. All ayes, motion
carried.
d) Discussion & Action-Junco Road maintenance Agreement w/Town of Ridgeville- While
researching this it was discovered that no one is receiving road aid for this road. Gail
attended the annual meeting for the Town of Ridgeville and proposed that ownership of the
road should go back to the Township so they can receive the road aids but the Solid Waste
Department would still be financially responsible for the maintenance and repair of the
road. Gail needs a letter from the Township stating this.
e) Discussion & Possible Action -Junco Road & Driveway Repair-There is a bad spot on Junco
Road where the cold mix used to repair it is breaking up. This needs to be fixed or next
spring it will completely fall apart. We have received price quotes from Scott Construction
and the Highway Department for the repairs. Gail would like to have this section ground up
and have the traffic drive on it for awhile to discover any problems or soft spots. Then Scott
could hot mix pave it for final repair. Motion to approve repair of the road using the
Highway Department for grinding and Scott Construction for hot mix made by Mike
Luethe, seconded by Richard Yarrington. All ayes, motion carried.
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MINUTES of the May 12, 2010 meeting of the Monroe County
Solid Waste Management Committee
f) General Activities- Covered under previous items.
g) Discussion & Possible Action-Out of County Waste– None presented.
6. LANDFILL OPERATIONS
a) General Activities / Leachate Report – The waste that piled up following the fire has been
relocated and compacted. The new compactor works very well. It has a different kind of
teeth than the one destroyed in the fire.
About 1-1 ½ years ago Fort McCoy contacted us about an ash clean-up. This was approved
previously, analyticals were done, the waste came back basically as dirt, and the DNR was
contacted about the waste. We have received notification from the DNR that fees have been
waived so the project will begin next week. We will be receiving the ash at $11.50 per ton
and it will be used as cover sand. Richard asked if it would be stockpiled and Gail said he
has three different staging areas ready for it.
Leachate was down 10 loads for this month but the same amount of gallons was hauled.
There was no hauling done during the road bans, Gail recirculated during that period. We
are up approximately 100,000 gallons year to date. When asked if there was a way to reduce
the amount of leachate Erik responded that reduction only happens when the landfill is
capped.
b) Discussion & Action-Landfill Gas Project Resolution for Vote to Proceed- Handouts of the
resolution and reports on the quality of landfill gas were looked at. Erik explained that there
are six wells in the older part. None of them have tops so are subject to atmospheric
conditions. He explained the ranges required for methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and
oxygen. Gail said we have good quality gas but no way to determine the volume. We need
hard gas numbers. RFP’s (request for proposals) have to go out now so they are back by the
end of July. The three phase line is buried. Carol asked if the 5k approved for monitoring in
the vouchers are for this. There was discussion of which costs are gas expenses or USDA
report expense. Larry asked if we would need a fiscal note for the resolution. Carol read the
needs for a resolution. This needs to go to finance next week and the resolution has to go to
the full board this month. Mike noted that with the creation of the new energy committee
that no one was present to hear about the project. Gail told the committee about his
meeting with the Borger Company and his participation in the discussion about animal
mortality. We wouldn’t do any research into this until the digester has run for a year.
Motion to move forward with the project and send resolution to full County Board, with a
fiscal note attached, made by Carol Las, seconded by Richard Yarrington. All ayes, motion
carried.
c) Discussion & Action – Flare System Rental- This item was on last months agenda but there
was no approval, as Gail didn’t have the knowledge to amend the Focus on Energy grant.
We need the gas numbers and Gundersen Lutheran needs the numbers. It will cost about
20 to 25k to rent a system for three months. We might possibly need it for four months.
This will be dependent on our flare system. Erik is in the process of designing our flare. His
hope is to use a turbine for the gas project with a minimum of 65kw to use about 25-30 cfm
of gas. Erik explained how the flare will work and the modifications for the turbine etc.
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MINUTES of the May 12, 2010 meeting of the Monroe County
Solid Waste Management Committee
Mike asked if the rental flare will give us the numbers we need, and was answered that it
would. It will be about 3-4 months to get the numbers and by then our flare should be
ready. Erik said that the permanent flare is designed to a specific project. Carol inquired if
the flare was mandatory. Generally it is five years but Site II needs it now as we are
recirculating leachate. According to the DNR if you recirculate you need a flare. The cost of
the permanent flare will be 100-120k, and is already included in our 2010 budget. Motion to
approve the rental flare made by Carol Las, seconded by Mike Luethe. All ayes, motion
carried.
7. RECYCLING PROGRAM
a) Transfer Facility Operation – Before Gail came, Jack had balanced the budget by adding
100k revenue. At the end of 2008 the subsidy program for haulers was started. MDS
collects and hauls all recycling to their facility with the exception of a few townships that
bring their recycling direct to us. Our compactor works ok but it struggled to keep up when
all the recycling was coming here. By Jerry doing this it is an efficient use of manpower and
equipment. This change saved us 70k in 2009. We broke our contract with One Source and
the Gerke proposal would have cost us $60.00 per ton. This program saved recycling for
Monroe County. The subsidy for this month is $4.00. John’s Recycling, which is where the
recyclables are taken, is very happy with our recyclables. We have good material and
recycling is in good shape. Our recycling costs, which we use for the grant, have gone down
so our grant for 2010 will be 195k. We should be in fine shape with that. Jerry explained
how well recycling is going. Carol asked if we receive any revenue from recycling. If prices
were to go above $40.00 per ton we would receive anything above that. Carol also
questioned what our costs are for recycling and Gail responded about 80-100k per year.
Prior to that we were losing money.
b) Discussion & Possible Action-Ag Plastic Program- We have been taking ag plastic during
our special waste clean ups. We let the surrounding neighbors know about this and the
response has been tremendous. Gail found a company that will take the plastic but they
won’t pay anything for it. Gail proposes that if the townships would be willing to set up an
area for the plastic, collect it, enforce the quality and load it, Gail will hire dumpsters and
once it is in the dumpster it becomes our problem. Gail didn’t think the townships would be
interested but the few he has contacted are willing to do this. Gail wants to offer this
agreement to all townships. Larry asked about how clean the plastic has to be and Gail said
if it is clean enough to load by hand then it is clean enough. Motion to move forward with ag
plastic collection made by Richard Yarrington, seconded by Mike Luethe. All ayes, motion
carried.
8.
MANAGER’S REPORT
a) Department Updates – The items Gail had for this ie: fire, Fort project etc. have all been
covered under other items.
b) New Account Numbers-Gail explained that he needs a separate account number due to the
reimbursement from Focus on Energy for our gas/food project. To keep track of this instead
of being mixed up in our operations accounts a separate number will allow us to track cost
and revenue better. Motion to approve the new account number made by Richard
Yarrington, seconded by Larry McTaggart. All ayes, motion carried.
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MINUTES of the May 12, 2010 meeting of the Monroe County
Solid Waste Management Committee
c) Discussion 372 Exchange-The Administrative Executive committee voted to do away with
the option for people in Tomah to call Sparta at no extra cost to them. Unfortunately they
did not take into consideration the costs already spent for printed material and information
already out there. Because our base phone number is through Norwalk we may not have a
problem but we would like to pursue the cost of keeping this option and paying for it
ourselves. We have not heard back from the telephone company yet so this item will be kept
on the agenda for next month when we will have the costs involved.
SET NEXT MEETING DATE
The next meeting of the Solid Waste Committee will be June 16, 2010, at 9:00 a.m., at the
Solid Waste Administration Building, 20448 Junco Road, Town of Ridgeville, Monroe
County Wisconsin.
MEETING ADJOURNED
Motion by Carol Las to adjourn at 11:15 a.m., seconded by Larry McTaggart. All ayes,
motion carried.
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