A trip to Cheyenne resulted in $295,000 in additional funding for the city’s landfill closure and transfer station projects.
Mayor Pete Rust said the city received the funding through the State Lands and Investments board during its annual meeting last week. SLIB is headed up by the five top elected officials in the state and provide funding and grant assistance to communities throughout the state.
Rust said he was surprised when he was told elected officials from other communities don’t often travel to SLIB meetings to help present their funding requests.
“I will always be there when there’s a request for money,” Rust said.
Green River’s landfill closure and transfer station project has moved up in the list of funding priorities. Rust said the two projects are listed at seventh and eighth on the list, having started out in the mid 20s. Rust said the loan Green River sought totaled $795,000. However, after the city’s presentation and subsequent discussion with SLIB, a $500,000 loan was approved with $295,000 in grant money awarded to the city.
“Traveling to Cheyenne for the day brought us $295,000,” Rust said. “It was a good trip.”
While he does credit the city’s work and its increased collection fees as showing Green River is doing its part for the trash collection projects, he also credits Gov. Matt Mead’s recent visit to Rock Springs for keeping the county’s needs fresh in Mead’s mind. Rust said Rock Springs Mayor Carl Demshar told the governor the county taxes itself frequently to complete capital construction projects and infrastructure improvements.
The projects are anticipated to cost approximately $5 million, with $3.2 million in grant funds secured in addition to the $500,000 load provided by SLIB. The city is required to put up a 25 percent match on the grant. Rust said another $1.2 million will come from the solid waste fund.
The change from a landfill to transfer station is part of a push towards regional landfills at the federal level. Rust said the mandate the state works under will protect groundwater supplies from possible pollution seeping into them from landfills.
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