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

Landfill prepares to close and cap cell

The Kimball Board of Public Works heard from two separate, but interconnected, entities at their regular board meeting Tuesday, June 23.

Larissa Binod, director of the Kimball Recycling Center and Keep Kimball Beautiful presented the quarterly financial report to the board.

Binod stated that in January the center collected more than 55,000 pounds of recyclables, February added another 41,000 pounds and 82,000 pounds of recycles was collected in March.

"In March we started recycling a significant amount of plastics from Castronics, hence the roll-offs in front of the recycling facility," Binod explained. "That gives you the total by quarter of how much material we've actually collected, and this does not count your glass at all."

The waste collected at the local recycling facility would otherwise go into local landfill.

"We are doing our best to divert any material that comes to our facility from the landfill, to somewhere else, to be reused, to be upcycled or to be incinerated," Binod said.

Approximately $30,000 was collected from the landfill fees for the facility last year. Additionally, Binod wrote grants for and received $84,000.

The center provides not just collection and processing of recyclables, but also educational services to the public, and beautification projects such as the recently completed mural painted on the Kimball Bakery wall.

"Dawn (Moeser) and Rachael (Merryfiled) have been working tirelessly on the beautification project we took on this year," Binod said. "Potentially to encourage the property owner to put something on that property, some greenery or a nature-scape."

Additionally, Keep Kimball Beautiful completed the litter pick-up, which netted 660 pounds of litter removed from the streets and lots in Kimball over a two hour time frame.

"There was a huge issue at the junction of Highway 71 and Interstate 80," Binod said. "One group had a whole trailer full just at the Diner, at the empty lot there."

One of the grants covers all the operating expenses of running a recycling programs, essentially running the facility, according to Binod, while another is specifically geared to prevent waste from leaving the place where it was created.

"Is there any grant money available for beautification of recycling facilities as far as building a fence?" board member Greg Robinson asked.

Binod stated that during a previous conversation about the same matter funding was questionable, but that with some direction from the board she can attempt to find proper financing.

"Good thing we are having this conversation, I write the grants and they are due August 5," Binod said. "So I need to know what is going to be required and requested of Keep Kimball Beautiful to purchase or to invest in the property."

Further activities to clean up Kimball include the annual community litter index in which volunteers survey and rate the community according to its litter.

Monitoring wells have been drilled and are expected to be wrapped up this week, according to the landfill update given by Ortiz.

These wells monitor water for which a sample and a report will be sent to officials this quarter according to Ortiz.

Additionally, Ortiz stated that bids are ready to be sent out for closure of the old cell, dug in 1996. The new cell has recently been built to replace the cell that is closed and ready to be capped.

"I wanted to bring to your attention that we have for you an estimate of the closure funds," Ortiz said. "In operating a municipal waste facility or C & D we are required to have a financial assurance. That is that we assure the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) and the state that we have the financial means and resources that when the cell is full we are able to close it."

Baker and Associates are performing the closure on the C & D pit, according to Ortiz, instead of going with the company previously used, Golder and Associates.

"We went out and got a second quote to see, price-wise where things stack up," Ortiz said. "We'll see how that works out."

Ortiz said that the city's original ordinances were written so that post-closure funds can be used to close cells as well as capping them.

Ortiz continued that the landfill is in need of a new track loader, and they are determining if it would be better to buy the equipment, which costs $10,000 annually to rent.

"Operating a landfill is not cheap, and it is getting more and more expensive," Ortiz concluded. "You have to jump through all sorts of hoops and hurdles for NDEQ."