Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

City council discusses landfill, event center roof

The Kimball City Council discussed ongoing projects at its Nov. 4 meeting.

Mayor James Schnell introduced the first topic for discussion, which was the landfill’s permit renewal. City Administrator Daniel Ortiz talked about the recent inspection and the scope of work proposal prepared and submitted by Golder Associates.

“This first inspection went well. We were supposed to have two inspectors but we ended up with five and they went around looking at everything, and so far everything has been fine,” said Ortiz said.

Golder Associates provided an application for scope of work, cost estimate and permit renewal. Golder Associates will attend the NDEQ inspection meeting at the Kimball Landfill. The next part of their job would be to prepare and submit the renewal for the permit. Golder Associates will respond to any NDEQ comments.

“We were told that this first inspection is just the start of the process and so it was a breeze. However, the remainder of the permit renewal process could turn into a lot of work. Each inspection will get deeper and more detailed,” Ortiz said.

In order to be prepared, those at the landfill will be going through and double checking everything in order to show compliance with NDEQ standards and regulations so that they might be prepared for the inspections to come.

Ortiz also inquired of the visiting inspectors about state of the current cell and what needs to be done in preparation for the new cell.

“One thing that they mentioned was the need for a monitoring well for the cell. That would need to be handled and has to be done according to certain specifications,” Ortiz said.

Councilwoman Ann Warner said she was concerned about the expense of a monitoring well being too much.

“This well is to monitor the water in the area to be sure that the landfill isn’t polluting the water. The way NDEQ monitors the samples is that they send a kit to the landfill and the samples have to be taken within a specific time period in order to be valid. So they have very specific needs and rules we have to follow in order for them to accept the samples. This well isn’t just a well, it’s for use to be able to send these samples to NDEQ,” Ortiz said.

The proposal for the scope of work and permit renewal project is estimated to cost $29,985. If the work ends up costing more, Golder Associates will provide that information in writing before the money is spent.

The council discussed the Kimball Event Center roof and asked Ortiz to return to the design of the remodel and see what could be scaled back in order to address the roofing issue.

“We want to make this a space that can be used for community events as well as private events. Especially due to the success of the recent Fall Festival, we would like to see more events that can be attended by the whole community. This is a big portion of why the roof needs repairs,” Ortiz said.

Councilwoman Kim Christensen expressed concern for making the event center an increasingly active space to use.

“I ran that even center for a time and it’s a lot of work for one person to do. I think that if we’re wanting to make this into a space that hosts a lot of community events, we need to take in account the work load and whether or not the current staff can handle that much activity,” Christensen said.

Ortiz said the current event center director has part-time help she hires when a large event comes up.

Warner asked if would be cheaper to build an entirely new building all together for the event center instead of making repairs to the current building.

After some discussion and price checking, it was determined that a new event center could cost over $1 million to complete and that does not include land for a new building or possible demolition costs of the old event center if the same land was planned on being used.

“I’m just trying to bring to you what different people have suggested to me,” Warner said. “People want their money going to fix a building that is going to benefit the community. A lot have the attitude of, ‘If it’s not going to benefit the community, just don’t do it.’ I think that all of us want to see something positive come from this situation,”

The council asked Ortiz to look into scaling back on the interior design in order to make up the money for the roofing repairs. They directed Ortiz to be prepared to address the cost at the next city council meeting, and asked that he meet with the designers in order to see where cost could be saved.

The meeting wrapped up with a look at the school resource officer agreement with the school district. There was previously nothing in the agreement with the SRO that prevented the appointed officer from being able to access and take information from students’ records off school grounds.

“Not that we believe that the current officer is doing such, we just feel that putting this in will be beneficial in the future,” Ortiz said.

Kimball Public Schools Superintendent Marshall Lewis stated that he supported the benefits of the amendment.

“We don’t have problems now, but adding this in will help us prevent any unforeseeable issues that may happen down the road,” Lewis said.

“I agree. I don’t feel that with current staff that this amendment is vital, but I do believe that we need to be protecting our students and what is in their permanent files and records,” Councilman James Shields said.

The council sent the amendment to be reviewed by the school board.

Also during the meeting, Ortiz gave a report on how things went when Kimball was using wind generators for its electricity on Nov. 3.

“There were some issues. There was a line break and as a result there are repairs that need to be done before we can expect to run on that generated power while the repairs are happening to the south sub station,” Ortiz said.

The next meeting of the council will be held at 7 p.m. on Nov. 18.