With the pace of work accelerating on the $5.9 million upgrade to the Woodward waste water treatment facility and the amount of heavy equipment and materials around the lagoons growing, the Woodward City Council moved Monday to temporarily ban yard waste dumping at the site west of town.
“The lagoon is off limits to the general public for the dumping of grass clippings and branches,” Folkerts said. “With the amount of equipment moving — dump trucks, cranes, dozers and materials — what’s out there currently cannot continue. We will come up with a way to still dispose of your yard waste, but it is not a place anymore for the general public to be visiting.”
The council received an April 8 letter from Veenstra and Kimm, the city’s engineering consultants, indicating the lagoon project’s contractor, Woodruff Construction, “has been working on the underground piping” and “associated structures” as “the first major component of work on the project that needs to be completed” and has received “a significant amount of the materials that will be used on the project.”
The council approved the engineer’s request for a partial payment of $653,685 for the work, including $642,927 for Woodruff and $10,757 for Veenstra and Kimm.
In order to meet the stricter discharge limits of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the city’s aerated sewage lagoons are being enhanced by the installation of a submerged aerated growth reactor (SAGR) system. The concrete structures for the SAGR system and its related piping are being built, with a large crane and steady stream of deliveries by semi-tractor trailers making the dumping of yard waste impracticable for private residents and raises liability issues for the contractor.
“When we originally talked about the lagoon project,” Folkerts said, “our idea was that we would use the property to the west of the city shed as an area for a temporary collection point. Since then, Alliant and Michels has taken that property over, and they’re dumping their slurry from the boring process out in there. So that became not an option.”
The council discussed a number of other options for collecting and disposing of property owners’ yard waste, including hiring Walters Sanitary Service Inc. to provide a roll-off dumpster for residents’ use.
Woodward City Council member Kelly Kirts noted the Boone County Landfill is offering free yard waste disposal from April 15 to May 1.
“Typically, what it costs you is $32 a ton with an $8 minimum for 500 pounds,” Kirts said, “but between now and the next 45 days, starting Monday, there’s no charge. So there’s another data point.”
In order to keep the service free for city residents, the idea of a trailer found favor with the council.
“I believe we still need to offer the service to the community,” he said. “I think if we don’t, we’re going to have grass clippings dumped everywhere. So one of the ideas was the purchase of a dump trailer that would be parked by the city shed to allow folks to put their clippings in, and then our city employees would be the ones going into the lagoon to dump them.”
After some discussion, the council unanimously approved the purchase of a 16-foot dump trailer to be parked west of the city shed at 102 Railroad St. The cost of the trailer is $7,500, which can be paid out of Local Option Sales Tax funds for capital equipment, Folkerts said. Council members noted the trailer will be useful for other jobs that are now labor-intensive, or it could be sold of next spring at little loss.
The council also discussed placing security cameras at the lagoons and fining violators of the dumping ban. Woodward Public Works Director Chris Newland said the trailer should be in place next week, perhaps as early as Monday.
“There will be plenty of signage,” Newland said. “Folks will figure it out pretty quick.”
Frugal Woodward City Council member Terry Luke agreed the city should absorb the cost of the new trailer for the sake of public order.
“If we don’t offer something,” Luke said, “you will be able to drive around a one-mile radius of the town of Woodward, and you will see those black garbage bags in every ditch on every gravel road because that’s what going to happen.”
