County may bale cardboard as a beginning step toward recycling

The Marion County Commis?sion Monday directed Transfer Station Director Rollin Schmidt to see if an offer from Sunoco paper mill at Hutchinson to supply a cardboard baling machine for a $1 a year lease would still be available.

If the county gets the machine, the commissioners said it would be a first step in recycling to reduce the expense of disposing of waste.

Schmidt?s latest figures show the county has hauled 5,282.51 tons of municipal solid waste from the transfer to the landfill at Perry with the per-ton costs on the last billing cycle at $42.25.

Schmidt said the cost would likely go down on the next billing cycle because fuel costs have gone down, but the overall trend is still toward disposal becoming more expensive.

The tonnage for all types of waste last month totaled 901.29 tons with a total of 44 hauls, Schmidt said.

Commissioner Dan Holub said, ?There is no hope to ever get a handle on the increasing costs of waste disposal unless we can do it through recycling.?

Holub said selling baled cardboard could be a way to start recycling conservatively with some income to be realized with minimal initial investment.

Commission Chairman Bob Hein said the middle room at the transfer station could be used for baling. The baled cardboard could then be set outside until a truck picked it up.

Dan Crumrine, a resident from Marion County Lake, who was observing the meeting, suggested the commissioners extend the recycling by first offering to take recyclables separated by households from all of the family truckloads that come in to the transfer station.

County Clerk Carol Maggard reported the county cash position Sept. 30, according to the treasurer?s office, at $9,129,258. This included a county general fund balance of $2,715,411 and a road and bridge fund balance of $1,261,057.

Commissioner Randy Dallke asked Road and Bridge Director John Summerville what the attitude of the county should be toward a farmer using his own equipment to work on a county gravel road. He said the person he had in question would believe he was helping the county.

Summerville said it hasn?t been minded in the past when a farmer might take some time to fill chuckholes with gravel, but it would be against good maintenance of roads for such an individual to attempt major grading or reconstruction.

The commissioners told Summerville to investigate purchase of a new waste-oil burning stove to replace a worn-out older one at a price that might be about $8,500.

Todd Heitschmidt of Central National Bank joined Treasurer Jeannine Bateman at the meeting to explain a new bank escrow account that would enable taxpayers to accrue annual property taxes with monthly payments.

CDW-G was awarded a treasurer?s office $2,366 bid for an IBM Infoprint 15.52n laser printer over bids of $2,500 from Great Plains Computers and $2,366.46 from Infinitec.

The commissioners authorized Michele Abbott-Becker, director of communications and emergency management, to pursue doing an audit of federal grant funds and pursuing grants using her own discretion in determining the worth of her involvement.

Abbott-Becker said she could get $10,000 worth of equipment for the county by administering $100,000 worth of grants. The equipment could include items the county normally wouldn?t purchase, she said, such as $800 radio equipment that could enable it to communicate with emergency crews using different equipment in neighboring counties.

Rod?s Tire & Service of Hillsboro was awarded a bid of $256.11 each for 10 trailer tires and $167 each for four semi recaps over competitive bids from Cardie Marion and Shamrock Wichita.

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