Burning concerns at the landfill

First item on the agenda for the Nov. 22 Board of Public Works meeting, was the quick and unanimous approval of the city’s proposed amended landfill agreement between the City of Kimball and Kimball County. The only changes made to the contract being a raise in the landfill charge from $15.00 per month to $17.25, the date of the contract and resolution number.

The remainder of the meeting continued to focus on the landfill. Jim Shulte reported his findings from researching other landfills in regards to other city’s brush and burn policies.

According to Shulte, the Sidney fire chief allows the fire to burn until it is out, including logs. Sidney had a grinder at one time but the cost was not worth the trouble.

The Chadron landfill, which supports many of the surrounding towns as well as Chadron, has two burn pits. While they are burning in one pit, they are filling the other pit.

Alliance uses a grinder at their landfill. They do not charge for items going in, but they do charge $10 per ton going out.

Scottsbluff charges $6.00 a cubic yard of all incoming brush. They then grind and make it available to residents, free of charge.

Shulte remarked that in a conversation with Daniel Ortiz, previous City Administrator, Ortiz had looked into renting a grinder but the cost was $3,000 per day or $10,500 per week.

Greg Robinson responded, “I thought that’s what we were going to do (get a grinder).”

Shulte answered that he did not know and that, “if they would allow us to burn more than one day, our fire chief, we could come in and just burn them down.”

Robinson replied that he knew that Shulte and Fire Chief Rick Wynne had conversations about burning in the past, but asked Shulte if he had tried to have a conversation with Chief Wynne recently.

“No, not recently,” Shulte replied.

“I kinda like the two pit idea,” Robinson said, then asked if there was land available at the landfill for two pits. According to Shulte he had already looked over the property and decided that the best place would be on the other side of the irrigation ditch, behind the gun range, where they had already dug some land out. All that would be needed would to build berms to separate the brush being burned from that not being burned.

Robinson asked Shulte, “Do you think the chief would be amenable to that plan or do you think he’s going to stick to his guns?”

“We can just ask,” Shulte answered. He added that other communities allow the brush to burn unattended overnight in wet conditions or if snow is present.

“It doesn’t do us any good if he is not going to let us burn for more than a day,” Robinson said.

If the two pit idea with continual burning on one side doesn’t work, the City may have to look into a grinder. Discussion continued about grinder types, sizes and capabilities.

“We’ve definitely got to do something with this stuff, I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Robinson said.

Conversation then turned to the origin of all these large logs at the landfill that are taking up needed space. According to Shulte, although some are from residents, the biggest share is from a tree removal company as city and residential trees are usually cut into smaller pieces.

Tree services are not currently being charged to take trees to the landfill, nor has that been done in the past, however the service will be charged beginning January 2017 as per the new resolution.

Cederberg thanked Shulte for collecting the information and brining it to the board, which will allow them to make a decision. He again asked Shulte to seek some relief from the Kimball Fire Chief as the first option.

Fire Chief Rick Wynne explained in a follow-up call, that he had been contacted by Shulte on Nov. 28 regarding burning at the landfill. He said that, although the landfill may be able to get rid of their normal brush pile in a day of burning, the big logs are an issue as they require longer, possibly days, to burn.

According to Wynne, it is a State of Nebraska regulation that all burning must be attended by a person, including overnight. He added that he will not allow unattended burning after dark that includes visible flames and flying embers. However, if landfill personnel were to cover the burning logs with a layer of dirt, prohibiting full out burning but allowing for a smoldering fire to continue, contained underneath overnight, he would consider that possibility. In the opinion of the Kimball Fire Chief, it is in the best interest of all and most responsible option for any fire to be watched 24/7.