Filling up fast

The newest cell at Kimball Landfill will reach capacity within the next two years and an expansion will be required by that time, at an estimated cost of $1.6 million, according to Kimball City Administrator Dan Dean.

"I want to bring the landfill to your attention," Dean said. "We have a little over two years left in the (current) cell for trash. It is time to start thinking about increasing it."

The engineers estimate, according to Dean, included a 50 percent multiplier from earlier estimates and a 40 percent contingency – bringing the total estimate to $1.6 million.

"I hope it can come in substantially less than that," Dean said. "The original estimate was approximately $750,000."

This was reported during the recent City Council meeting as part of Dean's updated draft budget report.

"As I mentioned earlier, I reorganized the budget (report) a bit," Dean said. "My budget approach is that you should have an ending fund balance in each of the funds. That creates a beginning fund balance for future use. I'm moving in that direction to have a better idea of where we are with our cash going forward."

Dean drafted the landfill cell into the budget as a bonded issue beginning this year. This major expense is required to handle the waste produced by Kimball residents, but one current landfill expense is avoidable.

Green dumpsters are placed in local alleys next to the brown dumpsters to allow citizens to deposit yard waste separately from household trash. The end result should be a rich pile of usable soil.

Instead the compost pile, covering approximately five acres at the Kimball Landfill, is a mix of yard waste and household waste that renders the soil unusable in its current condition.

This presents a big problem for the City of Kimball and the taxpayers, as the cost of waste management continues to increase and makes more work for landfill crew members.

"I do my best to look out for the best interests of Kimball and the environment," Landfill supervisor Jim Schulte said. "This pile is going to take more than three months to sort and at least a couple more months for clean-up."

At this time, the City of Kimball is spending approximately $17,500, including man hours, to sort and screen the refuse from the compost pile. Additionally, $12,500 has been budgeted for the same process next year, totaling $30,000 over two years that could be used for the necessary cell expansion.

Looking forward, the City of Kimball has implemented another way to reduce the amount of household waste buried at the landfill – single stream recycling.

This option is intended to make recycling easier for residents in that all recyclable material can be collected in one alley container to be taken to the recycle center for sorting.

According to Kimball Recycle Center supervisor Spud Rowley, The Kimball Board of Public Works approved placing 60-80 single stream bins in alleys by the end of September.

Trial bins have already been placed in some neighborhood alleys and are working well, according to Rowley. Additionally, for more than two years cardboard containers have been available for local businesses, significantly reducing the impact on the local landfill.

In the near future citizens can expect to see new containers in alleys throughout Kimball and they will be urged to use each container appropriately as the City of Kimball begins budgeting for the cell expansion.