Talking trash

The mayors of Hanna, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow were among those in attendance at the most recent meeting of the High Country Joint Powers Board (HCJPB) on Dec. 5 at the Hanna Town Hall.

Residents from all three towns were in attendance with concerns about the closure of the landfill shared by the three municipalites.

The landfill in Hanna is slated to be closed July 1, 2020.

In 2016 the three municipalities came together and decided on a plan that would be acceptable to all communities. The plan was based on board members listening to the communities they represented.

Several newsletters went out over the past few years telling each community what was happening. The newsletter asked for input from residents of all effected towns.

HCJPB chairman Toby Smith said few residents came to any of the board meetings over the years.

Elk Mountain mayor Morgan Irene concurred with Smith’s assessment.

“Its too late for the armchair quarterback,” Irene said. “The towns have made their decisions. Everyone had their chance to get out if they wanted to and they didn’t.”

Irene, who has been working with the HCJPB for 10 years, explained the reasoning the towns decided to stay together versus contracting out individually to waste disposal companies.

“The reason why was because if the towns split up, the funding would be gone,” Irene said. “Elk Mountain was ready to go, we had a truck, we had a route and Hanna had nothing. Medicine Bow had a wore out truck. If we all got together, it was better for everybody to be together and get the funding and stick together. That is the reason we are here today.”

When construction debris was mentioned as an added expense by a citizen, Smith and Irene both said whoever brought this type of trash would pay accordingly. Residents would not be subsidizing this type of waste.

Smith explained to the crowd in the room, because the HCJPB had taken two State Land Investment Board (SLIB) grants that conditioned the money be used to close the landfill in the manner had been agreed upon. The other SLIB grant was for trucks and equipment. This made it impossible for an outside company to come in.

“We are not looking to take on contracting someone to take our garbage, because it cannot happen,” Smith reiterated.

One resident asked if one truck was going to be responsible for picking up all the trash from three communities to take to the transfer station.

“One truck will take care of three towns every week,” Smith said. “There will be a backup truck.”

Hanna citizen Dale Brawley said the cost that has been increasing has been hard on citizens that are on fixed incomes.

Smith sympathized, saying he was in that situation but cost increase could not be helped.

Once all the questions from residents had been answered by the board Steve Simpson from Wyoming Disposal Systems (WDS) introduced himself to the board and audience. WDS had recently bought Tan-Dan Company, the local trash hauling operation for Hanna.

Simpson said he understood at this point the HCJPB board was locked into their current situation, but asked the board to keep his company in mind in the years to come. He went over the costs his company could provide.

“I am looking three, four, five years down the road,” Simpson said. “I just wanted you to see there will be options down the road.”

The board thanked him for his time.

Smith said he wished more input from the town of Hanna had occurred some years before.

“I really wish the town of Hanna, three years ago, would have voiced their opinions to their town council because it would have made it cheaper for us to have dumpsters around town like Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain,” Smith said. “But the few people that came to our meeting back then, didn’t want dumpsters in town.”

Hanna town council member and Hanna HCJPB representative Bob Patton reinforced Smith’s observation.

“When they first built the landfill out here, they went through this,” Patton said. “Then when it was offered to do what Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain were doing with getting their trash hauled twice a week for seven dollars a month, while it was costing us $12 for the same thing and we weren’t getting it all. It didn’t make sense to me, but that was what the majority of the people wanted that came to the meetings.”

“People were adamant, that there should be no dumpsters,” Ann Calvert, bookkeeper for the HCJPB and town clerk of Hanna said. “I know, because I wanted one.”

Next was the landfill financial report. The board approved the financials.

Smith said the design for the building for the transfer station was waiting for approval from Department of Environmental Quality. It has been six months.

Irene complimented the board with being cost conscious and keeping the landfill solvent under trying circumstances of the closure.

Smith said new trash bins for the Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain need to be purchased in the near future.

The board went into executive session at 7:30 p.m. It came out of executive session at 8:10 p.m.

The next scheduled meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Jan. 2 at Medicine Bow Community Hall.