Council funds waste study

The city council seeks an operational study for the upcoming solid waste transfer project.

The Green River City Council approved an increase in the Solid Waste Fund in the amount of $30,000 for the study.

The study was initially budgeted for $60,000, but the Solid Waste Division was able to decrease the cost to $48,000. However, last week they surveyed the landfill and found that is more full than they expected it to be at this point in time.

Director of Finance Chris Meats said the diminished capacity is causing them to move the time frame up. The division needs more funding to bring in a consultant from NewGen Strategies and Solutions to do an operational study. Meats assured the council they would not have to come in for more funds for the waste transfer project.

Director of Public Works, Mark Westenskow, said the operational study would help maximize their efforts with the solid waste transfer station. The Solid Waste Division does not have the experience to make the most efficient decisions like a professional outside consultant would have.

There has been a vacant engineer position with the city, so that limits what the solid waste staff can do. Plus, the time crunch has taken time they initially though they would have away from the staff to work on reviewing the operation.

Professional guidance is needed to review the solid waste transfer options and to answer questions to give the city a more precise rate.

“We have to decide what it is we need,” City Administrator Reed Clevenger said. An outside consultant can answer the question of which option for transfer is the most efficient. He also said they need to be efficient with deciding what to do with green waste and recycling. Another question the consultant could answer is whether the current trucks will be efficient in transferring waste, as the trucks are over twenty years old.

Councilman Allan Wilson asked if the city has known for a while that the landfill would eventually close, did they not consider the trucks may not be suitable for transfer.

Meats said they have considered using some of the railroad trucks that are not being used for the transfer routes.

According to Meats, the results of the landfill survey indicate the Solid Waste Division are limited to a few months to significantly decrease waste, which is considerably quicker than they thought. The division believes it would be best to do the operational study as soon as possible.

Mayor Pete Rust said the study is basically an efficiency study and is done to find out if the transfer is being done the right way. The more efficient the transfer is, the more money will be saved.

“Hopefully they’ll find out there are inefficiencies,” Rust said, adding that making corrections on inefficiencies will save money in the long run.

Other Business

The council rejected all of the bids for the Historic Green River Depot Brownfield Remediation Project. The project would remove lead based paint and asbestos from the train depot. The engineer’s estimate was $234,000, however the lowest bid was $370,639.35.

The $100,000 over estimate resulted in the council rejecting the bids. The city will have to come up with more money for the project and review the initial plan.

Also, the council approved a second reading of the ordinance to update to the latest editions of the International Building Codes.

Rust said the codes are required by the State of Wyoming and will give contractors and common residents more flexibility when remodeling or improving buildings rather than decreasing flexibility.