Recycling plan to get public hearing

A packed house of haulers and residents concerned about recycling coverage in Lyon County showed up at the commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
In the end, the Lyon County Board decided to try and negotiate a short-term contract to keep service rolling, hold a public hearing to get input and continue the roll-off program they’ve begun.
“I would like to thank everyone for the calls and emails from everyone concerned with continuing curbside (recycling coverage),” said County Board Chairman Gary Crowley.
Environmental Director Roger Schroeder said, “For people who have a lot of recyclables, we could provide it for them until we have public input.” Chairman Crowley said, “Some said if their rates are going to go up, I’d rather take it and go to a site. But the majority said they wanted curbside (coverage),” he said.
Commissioner Charlie Sanow indicated a special meeting should be held. “If we’re going to do a public hearing, I’m in favor of doing it at night so people can attend,” said Commissioner Ritter.
“We would have new numbers for the public hearing and the next day we can make a decision,” said Chairman Crowley. They set a public hearing for 6:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 30 before the October 1 county board meeting.
The board instructed Schroeder to contact the previous bidders with new specifications in order to obtain bids. “All of the key players in our area are aware of the situation,” said Schroeder.
Commissioner Sanow suggested an 18-month contract with haulers, instead of a five-year contract.
County Attorney Maes explained the bids taken were rejected, so there is no agreement for the future. He said the county could do some short-termed negotiations to continue recycling pickup until a permanent decision can be made.
Sanow also made a motion to, “Give Roger (Schroeder) ‘the latitude’ to discuss a short-term contract with the two vendor-bidders to make sure service is not interrupted.”
When asked why the board didn’t delay a decision for “roll-offs”, or large recycling dumpsters, until a final decision is made on recycling pickup, the board indicated they are going to put the roll-off system into force, regardless of whether a new contract is negotiate.

SCHROEDER told the board during their discussion that:
•“We have a recycling container delivery for the 14 sites in the county. The containers will probably not arrive until mid-October. We probably don’t want to be without containers at the job sites. I think we should try to negotiate a price to have containers on site through the end of October. It’s unfortunate the company we purchase these from can’t do it sooner.”
• “If we go forward with serving the 14 drop sites, what will our marketing be? We need a little more time to lock in a program. We need to know if we can service all the recycling materials.” He indicated a need to make sure the trucks could pick up the materials and deliver it to a site in Redwood Falls for processing. “If they are able to process it, they are willing to do it for $55 a ton but they want to make sure they can do it first. We have at least a close destination in Redwood Falls,” he said.
Schroeder said, “In the previous proposal, we had 8,500 stops, or about 6,000 homes. We could look at trying to control the costs and to consider not serving places with no greater than eight units.”
He said there are ways to cut down the cost of recycling.
“Places where recycling is not taking hold as strongly would be the first places to consider not doing. Also, we could consider not doing curbside in less than 150 houses.”
Those would include communities the size of Amiret, Ghent, Lynd and Russell that would no longer offer the curbside service.
“We could knock off $200,000 off the cost of curbside service,” Schroeder said.
Depending on what scenario is used, “It’s possible we could try and control the cost with reduction of service. I think we have to be practical. But in cities like Amiret, I don’t think I’d have trouble taking my recycling to a site,” Schroeder added.
County Board Chairman Gary Crowley said, “The service should be offered to everybody, regardless of what community people live in.” Commissioner Rick Anderson agreed. “I think Florence, Garvin and Amiret wouldn’t have an issue getting to a central location.”
Anderson said to Crowley, “We have been dropping off our recycling for 30 years.”
“It’s how quickly we can turn this around and how often we can do it,” added Commissioner Anderson. “If we do what some people have asked us, to watch how we purchase our product, twice a month would be enough,” Anderson added.
For those who have jobs or family commitments, “We could look at a second container for homes,” added Schroeder.
He said, “There are a lot of changes that could come out of our office that could be done to reduce the cost and help people recycle.”
Commissioner Charlie Sanow says he is for getting back to curbside as soon as possible. “I would like to see us get two bids and compare them and see how much difference there is.” He added, “I’d like to see how quickly we could turn that around.”
“We’d have to promote no more plastic bags for our containers. We could remove glass, but we’d have to work out an agreement to remove glass,” Schroeder added.
Commissioner Steve Ritter said he’d like to have a public hearing because the calls and emails he’s received indicated people still want curbside pickup. “I’d like to hear from the public.”
Answering Commissioner Ritter was Commissioner Anderson, who said, “I really want to get this done and in place before the contract ends so we get this done before the end of the month.”
Commissioner Sanow supported the idea of a public hearing to “get the input, adding, “We can make a decision on all the information we get.  Getting the roll-offs was meant to make sure we had something in place (when the contract runs out).

Roll-off truck to be purchased
The board voted to purchase a new “Roll-off Truck” to help in the recycling process.
At the last meeting, the board, discouraged by recycling bids that nearly doubled or exceeded the previous costs, voted to go to a “roll-off” system, in which residents would need to deliver their recyclables to the “roll-off” collection sites.
The existing roll-off truck used by the Lyon County Landfill is a 1995 Mack with a cable hoist system. “This vehicle works well for landfill site needs, but is becoming less reliable as an over the road truck,” said Environmental Director Roger Schroeder.
There were six bids for the new truck, ranging from $136,000 to $187,900. The low bid was for a  Kenworth T-880 with an additional $33,500 for a “pup-trailer” for the truck. The cost of at least one more employee would make the project cost over $200,000.
However, Commissioner Rick Anderson made a motion to spend $138,800 for the second lowest bid, a “Freightliner” model. The “pup-trailer” will not be purchased at this time.
Commissioner Ritter felt this was too much of an expense at this time. Commissioner Sanow indicated the truck would last a number of years. He suggested the board delay the decision at this time. They also voted to advertise to hire a operator for the roll-off truck.
The board voted to purchase the truck on a 4-1 vote.
In addition, the board, in preparation for collection of recyclables by closed roll-off containers, approved the removal (selling) of recycling sheds in Amiret, Florence, Garvin, Ghent, Green Valley, Lynd and Taunton. The purchasers will be responsible for removing the sheds before Nov. 1. Besides these six sheds, there are two other sheds operable in the county.
IN OTHER action the board:
 •Noted the Lyon County Sheriff’s offices was named as one of 67 counties with an interest in participating in the Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) Enforcement Grant Program.
The county will receive $5,927 each year for 2020 and 2021 for the sheriff’s office to use for Off Vehicle education and equipment purchase.
The board approved the grant with the Department of Natural Resources. It will be effective now until June 30, 2021.
The board also accepted a jail food service proposal from Summit Food Service to provide inmate meals to the Lyon County Enforcement Center. “It’s very similar to the current contract we have,” said Sheriff Eric Wallen.
The contract will provide service through December 31, 2024.
Sheriff Wallen also asked for and received board permission to participate in an improved 911 system called, “Next Generation 911.”
The county is mandated to provide GIS date to the state for completion of the project.
Lyon County has been awarded $19,972 to complete the project.
“We are a regional receiving center for the area,” said Sheriff Wallen.
“For Lyon County, the grant would reimburse wages up to the allotted amount for the preparation of the desired data,” the sheriff indicated.
•Accepted the resignation of Sherri Kitchenmaster as Lyon County Assessor. The assessor  works with local units of government to value and classified property for tax purposes. Her final day is Oct. 15.
The board voted to open up the job internally. They do have a candidate ready to take over the position who is currently working within the office. The county will get mentor help from the City of Marshall in training the new assessor. There will be an opening in the assessors office so the board agreed to post that position.
•Approved the 2020 Preliminary Levy at 2.2 percent. That number hasn’t changed since the last meeting. The levy is due to be submitted by Sept. 30. The levy can be lowered, but not increased after it’s submitted.