By David Peck
The Lovell Town Council will seek public input to establish a composting program for the community in light of the expected end of open burning in the town limits.
Complaints sent to the Wyoming DEQ Air Quality Division last spring led to the denial of the town’s traditional setback waiver for open burning in the fall, and after an outcry from the public and an appeal from the Town of Lovell, the DEQ eventually allowed four days of burning over two weekends.
As the council met for a work meeting Monday night, Mayor Bruce Morrison said he has visited with the Big Horn County landfill board about establishing composting at the North Big Horn County Landfill.
“They are interested in doing that, but there’s some hesitancy about how to proceed,” he said.
Councilman Scott Allred said many people don’t have a truck to haul clippings to the landfill, even if there is composting there, and the mayor and council agreed that a place to take leaves and clippings in town would be better.
“Could we have a community collection point?” Allred asked.
Morrison said he visited with an Inberg-Miller engineer from Riverton who said that the City of Riverton has an excellent composting program.
“He said it would be worth our while to go down and take a look at it,” Morrison said. “It’s something we really need to look at and provide that service.”
Asked if the town will apply for a setback waiver this spring, Morrison said the future of burning in Lovell is “something to talk about.” He said Greybull hasn’t had burning in town since the 1970s and has an active composting program.
“My whole intention is to see what we can do and see how we can help people,” Morrison said. “The successful ones (programs) create their own composting pile and residents can come and use it.”
There can be a problem with people mixing garbage with compost, the mayor added.
He said residents of Billings sweep leaves into the street and they are picked up by the city. He said large vacuum trucks for that purpose are expensive, however.
“We need to maximize access while minimizing garbage,” councilwoman Jodi Lindsay said.
Morrison said residents are going to have to accept the possibility that the DEQ will no longe rallow open burning in Lovell, although he said he would talk to agency officials again. He said shortening the burning period isn’t the answer, noting that the smoke in town was “terrible” during the compacted schedule last fall.
“We need more of an open attitude than we’ve had in the past,” he added. “The DEQ said this might be it.”
“In a world that’s going green, composting is a great idea,” Lindsay noted.
Lindsay said she likes the idea of forming a citizens group to look into options in case burning is no longer allowed, and Morrison said he would like to invite the open burning advocates to be involved in the process.
“I think we need to pursue it and not put it off anymore,” Morrison said. “Maybe we need to get on the horn and start calling some people. Maybe we can set up the group and take some of them to Riverton (to study composting). I’d like to meet next month.”
Allred said people forming the composting group will need to realize that the group is being formed to find alternatives to burning and that burning is not an option that would be considered by the committee.
Morrison said other options could be considered, as well. He said the Lovell Tree Board helped the town purchase a wood chipper a few years ago that was intended for public use, but he said the town doesn’t have the staff to operate the device for the public.
Town Administrator Bart Grant warned that true composting would require specialized equipment and more employees to manage the program. He said the costs would be passed on to residents.
“We can’t afford another program and more employees,” he said.
The council will discuss the composting group at the March 9 council meeting and has tentatively set a public meeting for Thursday, March 18, at 7 p.m., at the community center.
Water report
Don Richards of the Shoshone Municipal Pipeline Joint Powers Board presented his semiannual report to the council Monday night. He ran the council through a series of reports, noting that Lovell’s water usage was at its lowest level in the history of the pipeline last year, in part because of a cool year in 2009. He noted that leakage in the Lovell system is still “unbelievable – about 30 percent.”
He also said the cost of chemicals for water treatment is up significantly, but he said the board does not anticipate a water rate increase.
Richards noted the quality of the water on the system, recalling that water hardness used to average about 200 in Lovell and would reach the 500 level during the winter, but now the hardness scale averaged only 53 in 2009.
“What a fantastic buy this is at the price you’re buying it,” Richards told the council. “It’s the best water in the state and the surrounding states.”
He added that the pipeline is “very solvent still” even though there have some setbacks in the project to construct a pipeline adjacent to the Powell highway east of Cody.
“We’re producing a good product,” Richards said.
In other work
meeting action
monday:
• Grant noted that the county has informed the town that it will be passing along a half cent per pound rate increase to municipalities for the north Big Horn County landfill. That increase will be built into the 2010-11 budget and will eventually result in a garbage rate increase, Grant said.
• The council discussed a proposed ordinance to assess a late fee for utility bills not paid after 20 days and that are, thus, considered to be delinquent.
• The council worked on updating the town employee personnel policy manual.
Grant told the council that the town has received proposals from DOWL/HKM Engineering, Coffey Engineering and The Company of Lander to re-plat the back eight lots of the Lovell Clay Subdivision so the corner lots will have the same building area while maintaining required setbacks.