Hail Mary for landfill district?

As Moorcroft attends the final aspects of their landfill closure, Sundance Councilman Joe Wilson came to call during the regular town council meeting last week, joined by Crook County Commissioners Fred Devish, Bob Latham and Kelly Dennis.

The topic? Revisiting the possibility of a solid waste district.

“I spent a lot of time with former Mayor [Dick] Claar, talking about possibly forming a trash district a handful of years ago, with your landfill,” said Wilson.

“It’s been brought out again with the fact that you are looking at the cease and transfer coming in and I wonder if we should take one last stab at looking at this and see if what the best thing is for Crook County in this.”

He reiterated many of the reasons Moorcroft had fought for just this possibility several years ago, saying, “We will never see another landfill anywhere on the I90 corridor. The way the regulations are and everything, where your [landfill] is is the last spot that I can see within the populated area of Crook County.”

Wilson was candid that he does not know yet whether a garbage district would be feasible. His hope, he said, is to find that out.

“I want to look at this and see if keeping the control of what we have as far as waste disposal for our municipalities and our county would be better in our county versus hoping that Gillette, Newcastle, Belle Fourche, whoever it is – if that’s the best way to go,” he said.

“I want to know what the numbers are to make the thing self-sustainable.”

After a moment of contemplation, Mayor Ben Glenn said, “It was always our goal, because it does create jobs, it creates a lot of things we need in our county. Honestly, we’ve beat this drum for five years trying to move forward.”

He went on, “It is a struggle, it’s close to our hearts too. I agree, once you lose control, you’ve lost control. We’re not looking so much for the town of Moorcroft; we’re not going to be in any transfer – we have a garbage hauler that picks our trash up and it disappears. Would we like it to disappear and make money in Crook County? You bet.”

The mayor was not inclined to put the town in this melee again.

“I think the path that Moorcroft is on is probably the path we’re going to remain on, but that’s not to say that if the solid waste district is formed, that land wouldn’t be sold or given to that district or something to reopen that landfill,” he said.

Wilson then explained how he would expect any possible mill levy for this endeavor to actually work.

“I want it to sunset; if we build this thing and we can never take it off the tax record, that, to me, says it’s not sustainable,” he said. The idea would be for the mill levy to pay only for construction and the landfill to pay for itself.

The commissioners were also candid in their responses to the reopening of this matter, with Devish admitting, “It’s a can of worms, we’ve been down this road before. I like Joe’s theory on it, is it going to be feasible to do? Sunset out the mil levy and at least break even and make a little money?”

He and Latham expressed willingness to pursue information from the original studies and, perhaps, move forward with a new study regarding needed tonnage and population for self-sufficiency.

However, Dennis was adamantly against following a poll that the county commissioners took a few years ago asking whether citizens would want to put the question of a district and mill levy on the next ballot, which returned a result of approximately 60% of respondents in favor of doing so.

“It’s not even feasible…I have no problem myself to take it to South Dakota, I’m sure that’s where mine goes, I don’t know, I don’t care,” he said.

The rancher continued, “Looking at history, once we get a mill levy started and they get that into operation, it will never come off…I can be proud of the fact that we’re one of the lower mils in Wyoming. I will not, absolutely, tolerate anything that raises any mill levy at all for any reason in this county because with our raising values, we’ve almost got elderly people in this county pushed out of their homes by mill levy…If you haven’t got much property, it not a big item, but if you have quite a little property with very nice house, that adds up to a lot of money.”

Latham answered for those on fixed income: “First of all, everybody seems to agree a feasibility study, but, also, if that comes out to be feasible, what was said here about what mill levies can go away – we know a lot of people in our county are on fixed income, we have a lot of retirees. We don’t want to hurt people so, if the dump is feasible, what mills do we get rid of to help pay for this? So we control how much the overall cost to the residents goes up.”

Dennis also opined, “I don’t see any reason the county needs to get into the garbage business. There is no reason for that.”

Glenn asked him if he would rather be at the mercy of the garbage trucks and tipping fees of whatever outside landfill to which those trucks must travel. Dennis simply said, “Yes”.

Another local rancher, Judy McCullough, who owns approximately 14,000 acres, spoke to this, as well: “I don’t think the ranchers ought to subsidize the cities.”

She was reminded by the mayor of the county’s weed and pest department, subsidized by municipal moneys while the towns also pay for their own weed and pest control. She that those who would initiate a mill levy should, instead, take the funding from one of the “socialistic programs” already in place.

McCullough then alluded to a discrepancy between the county votes and the municipal votes on the countywide survey: “If you look at the voting precincts, you’ll see that every rural precinct voted against it and I want to say that the city people have you to be their government…and you also have two of the county commissioners, it sounds like, so who do we have to represent us?”

Glenn rebuffed this misinformation: “You saw that outside city limits 599 voted, inside the city limits 299 voted and was still passed by 60%?”

The rancher expressed surprise at the actual numbers and simply restated her opposition.

Councilman Dale Petersen asked McCullough if she would support the democratic process, “At least putting it out to the voters? Are you in support of that or are you in support of a dictatorial situation?”

She answered, “I’m not in support of dictating, but I’m not supporting the cities outvoting the country people because they do, look at all the elections, they got more votes. The more of us they put out of business, the more they’ve got the votes.”

Petersen spoke to choices made for the few, stating that governing bodies should be representing everybody. Latham agreed with this opinion: “I live in Sundance, but I represent the whole county.”

“When I originally got into this,” Wilson said, “I made mention to the county commissioners I would like to see a board put together to study this; I absolutely want the ranchers’ perspective on this. I don’t want to create a hole in the ground that I’m associated with that turned out to be the worst thing the county taxpayers ever voted on…and I want to make sure that the information we gather and that we put forward could make it make sense to you as a rancher.”

Latham agreed with a construction mill levy to get started: “All I want to know, is it feasible. Yes, for a little while, we may have to pay higher taxes. I live in town, I pay a hell of a lot higher taxes than people in the county do. We’ve got a ton of people who have moved into this county and have bought 35- and 40-acre plots [and] guaranteed, they don’t have a dump [on their land] like you do.”

“They want that crap hauled off and they don’t want to pay for it to be hauled to Belle Fourche or Gillette or where ever. They’re in the same position as the rest of us,” Latham continued.

“All we want to do is find out if it’s feasible. We can’t do anything until the voters say yes.”

HDR Engineering’s Heath Turbiville told the group what was realistic for the landfill: “It needs to have something to subsidize it to get constructed and that’s what the mill levy would allow. After it’s constructed, it’s largely dependent on if you can get everybody in Crook County or part of Crook and some of Weston County in haulers to get enough tonnage. Where Moorcroft was at before they had to go down to just a C&D pit, they weren’t quite there, but they were getting to where they were fairly close where the numbers could keep operating the landfill. It has to have the county involved.”

Dennis stated again: “Let me go on the record, I don’t care where they go with it, I produce a lot of garbage and I hire [private haulers], even though I’m in a rural community.”

Devish said, “Moorcroft has the highest rates for water/sewer/garbage in the state. About $150 a month, that’s fine because water comes to my house, sewer goes away from my house, I put my trash out Thursday night and Friday morning, it’s gone.”

“So in the big picture of that,” he concluded, “If there was a mill levy – a tax – it would hurt me, I would be paying again, but I’m willing to take a look at that. The big thing to me is: can we get enough trash?”

After everyone had said their piece, Wilson closed his request, “I would like to ask the county commissioners and you, because it is your property, to maybe take one last look at this before it’s gone. Because when it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Glenn replied, “I don’t think it’s Moorcroft that will stymie this or hold it back, our path is pretty well set, but I think we would support your district or whatever you’re going to call this…If it would keep a landfill in Crook County, in my opinion, you’d have the spot. If we can control our own destinies, I hate giving up control of that. We would try to do everything down the line to make sure all the tonnage we create here goes. To sum it up, we’re 100% onboard and you’d have our support.”

Petersen went further, asking, “What do you need from us? We can give you all the studies, if you want, but I don’t think Moorcroft’s going to be a financial player in doing a study at this point.”