Outside firms to need OK to dump

By Cassie Tomlin

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008 | midnight

The City Council will decide which waste from outside the city limits can be buried in the municipal landfill, but creating an application and approval process for that waste has been delayed.

The council Oct. 28 voted unanimously to postpone the action to allow time for redrafting and discussion after Councilwoman Linda Strickland submitted additional proposed changes.

The council last month voted to require all new outside waste users be approved through the City Council, so City Manager Vicki Mayes drafted an application for potential outside customers.

Her version would grant the City Council the responsibility of approving new outside users and require outside users to pay twice the current landfill fee.

Strickland called the ordinance change "vague and ambiguous" and drafted her own, which City Attorney Dave Olsen will review to determine if her provisions can be added.

The current code and contract with operator Boulder Disposal exempts trash from the National Park Service, Gold Strike Casino and the township of Nelson. Gold Strike Casino is now the Hacienda.

The new contract should identify two businesses in the Eldorado Valley, Ultralight Flying Machine and Eldorado Hills, as exceptions to the rule.

Strickland said entities outside the city limits who want to use the municipal dump should have to turn applications directly to the public works director, not the landfill operator.

Mayes has said 10 or 12 other parts of the contract need to be corrected, but Steve Kalish, president of Boulder Disposal, refuses to renegotiate.

Boulder Disposal recently exercised the right to extend its contract for another five years.

The company signed with the city five years ago, and had the right to sign another for another five if it wasn't found in breach of the contract.

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].