Kris Miller
Hiawatha World

The Brown County commission met with Landfill Director Don Pounds about a waste removal program and some complaints about the costs regarding this program.

Pounds brought up a contract with Jackson County, which involves a program dealing with hazardous waste removal. Pounds said that Jackson County was contacted if they could come retrieve the garbage, but there is an added cost. The landfill director stated that he was informed that this program was not needed; Pounds spoke with the commission to have the program cease because he was not able to make a profit at the landfill with the program in place.

Regarding the program, Commissioner Richard Lehmkuhl remarked that people who bring in the hazardous waste to the landfill usually hide it in the garbage they bring in, with Pounds stating that hazardous waste like lithium was not recyclable. He also included that Jackson County did not take any out-of-county waste.

The commissioners agreed to revisit the topic later; Pounds stated that he would look more into how Sabetha handled its own hazardous waste. The subject of hazardous waste was tabled for another time.

The commissioners also discussed Permit 25-02, which regarded buried cable permits. They discussed how Willis resident Rex Lockwood wanted to bore into an area for the buried cables; it was agreed that an engineer needed to be contacted first.

One of the major discussions of the meeting was about current road and bridge projects. The commissioners spoke with BG Consultants representative Brady Hedstrom over speakerphone over specifics of when a bid for the OS-265 bridge would need to be accepted, Hedstrom said that the commissioners had 60 days to accept the bid. Hedstrom added that he would need to reach back to Lenexa-based Terracon about the bridge design, as speed did not factor into the design. Commissioner Lucas Heinen also brought up that residential rates in the county have risen and said that Prairie Road needed attention regarding maintenance. Commissioner William Pollock stated that excess money was spent on bridges, and that money needed to be spent on roads; he also added that many of the county’s expenses were on engineering and that grant money was problematic, especially given how the grant money had to be spent. Commissioner Lehmkuhl said that there needed to be a plan for the roads regarding their maintenance. The commissioners decided that the topic of roads and bridges would be revisited next week.

After covering the end of the month report and executive session time, the meeting adjourned for a workshop session.

During the special meeting that took place on Wednesday, there were three executive sessions and a motion passed to terminate a District 3 foreman.