Separate ways in high country

The High Country Joint Powers Board (HCJPB) convened their regularly scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Hanna Town Hall.

All board representatives from the towns were present with the exception of Bob Patton of Hanna. All mayors of Elk Mountain, Hanna and Medicine Bow were present.

The board quickly approved the agenda and the minutes from the regular scheduled meeting held on July 2.

Toby Smith, chairman of the HCJPB, said the landfill closure was going well.

“They got it all covered now at the dump,” Smith said. “We are getting [it] done.”

He said there are two dump trucks, a loader and a bulldozer to get rid of since they won’t be needed any longer. They would go out for bid.

Smith said there are three tanks holding diesel fuel that need to be addressed. Together they hold 800 gallons and have to be taken out. Mayor Lois Buchanan said she would have the Hanna public works director look at them and see if the town might be able to move and use them.

Smith said Rocky Mountain Power would be coming to take out the line.

Mayor Morgan Irene asked if the reclamation had begun. Smith told him that a road had been cut, but actual reclamation had not.

“They (DEQ) have some more dirt to put on the dump itself and then they have to do some testing on that,” Smith said.

The current employee at the landfill will continue at the landfill until the next scheduled meeting.

The board commended Robert Young for an excellent job of getting the landfill back in working order in a matter of weeks after the previous two employees had not been able to do the job.

“He literally cleaned that place up,” Elk Mountain HCPJB representative said. “He deserves some sort of reward.”

The board agreed to figure out his reward by the next meeting.

It was agreed that the HCJPB will still have titles to the garbage trucks of the three towns, but each will be responsible for taking care of their own trash.

“The joint powers board will stay in effect, but post closure transfer, the towns are doing it on their own,” Irene, said. “We (HCJPB) aren’t breaking up, we are just post closure transfer, we (towns) are taking care of it in-house by ourselves because we can do it more cost effective.”

The towns will be responsible for tipping fees, insurance for personnel and fuel. The town of Medicine Bow will be purchasing a new truck and Hanna will take Medicine Bow’s current truck. Elk Mountain has a truck they will continue to use.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) will have to be drafted by each town with HCJPB to make the situation work. Once a town has its MOU, each town lawyer will have to look it over.

In the MOU there will be wording inregards to breaks downs. The idea is for the towns to be friendship minded and help each other although each town will doing their own trash removal.

Irene sees a special meeting coming before the next regularly scheduled meeting of the HCJPB.

“We are probably going to have a special meeting between times because, once we get the specs for the truck for Medicine Bow, we need to get them to Medicine Bow as soon as we can,” Irene said. “There is still a lot of stuff to take care of.”

Next the financials were approved. Bills totaled at $182,000.

The Town of Hanna requested 10 acres at the present landfill for their roll offs.

The board approved the Town of Hanna for 10 acres with the access attached as long as Hanna takes care of the legal fees connected to the transfer.

The last order of business was the election of officers for the board for 2020-2021.

Irene suggested the officers stay the same. The board approved the officers staying the in their positions.

The meeting adjourned at 6:58 p.m.

The next regularly scheduled meeting is at 6 p.m. on September 3 in Medicine Bow.