- the Board of Directors of the Waste Reduction District of Monroe County for Thursday, April 9th, 2026.
- Mr. McClassam, will you please call the roll? Piedmont Smith. Oh, I'm sorry. I did not recognize Piedmont
- Smith there. I thought you said Pete somebody. Yeah, it said Pete there. But anyway, I'm sorry.
- I am here. Thomas? Here.
- Wilkes? Here. Jones? Ellis? Here. Thompson? Madera? Here. Have a quorum present in the room and Commissioner
- Thomas online. All right, thank you. And welcome to our new board member, William Ellis, who we had
- online at our last meeting, but first time in person, so welcome aboard.
- All right, we'll start today with the executive committee meeting minutes. This is just for your information.
- Did anybody want to raise anything in particular about those minutes? All right, then we can move on
- to approval of the board of director meeting minutes for March 12th. Do I have a motion? I have to approve.
- Second. All right, and Mr. McGlasson,
- there was a small revision that I asked for today. Yes. Excuse me. On page three of the minutes under
- the twenty twenty six community grant program. The first are the typographical correction of a little
- flip flop on the date there it is twenty twenty six not twenty sixty two.
- First paragraph under A, the 2026 Community Grant Program Award statement was added that the application
- is from the IU Health Community Health Hygiene Pantry to purchase sustainable feminine hygiene products
- for distribution to its clients. Thank you. Yeah, I thought it was important just to say what the grant
- was. Any other discussion of the meeting minutes from March 12th? Seeing none.
- Let's have a roll call vote. We'll have to do all our votes this way since we do have a member who is
- on Teams. Thomas? Yes. Ellis? Yes. Piedmont Smith? Yes. Padera? Yes. Wills? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.
- Thank you. All right, next we'll move on to the controllers report.
- We have our controller, Theresa Goins, on Teams. Yes, I see her. All right, take it away. The cash flow
- summary was sent in an email on Wednesday, April 8, 2026. See page one. Here are the balances as of
- March 31st for the following accounts. Operating $4,634,526.31.
- Debt service, $101.46. Capital, $46,188.18. Landfill post closure, $828,216.89. The individual cash
- flow statements are on pages two through seven. Are there any questions on the accounts balances?
- All right, any questions on that report?
- Seeing none, we can move on to our claims. On page 12 of the packet, you have a summary of the pre-approved
- payroll and claims since our last meeting in the amount of $139,535.26. The backup for those numbers
- are on pages 13 through 48.
- The payroll and claims for approval this week were sent in the email on Wednesday and are in the amount
- of $67,612.76. Documentation was included in the Wednesday email. That brings the total of payroll and
- claims that were recommending for approval to $207,148.02. Are there any questions regarding these claims?
- All right, any questions?
- I don't see any. Let's go to the public. Are there any public comments regarding payroll and claims?
- No public here in person, and I don't see any hands raised. So we can move on to a roll call vote, please,
- on payroll and claims. Oh, we need a motion. You don't have a motion on the paper. I'm terribly sorry.
- Move approval as presented. Second. All right. Now we have a motion.
- and a second so we can go ahead with our roll call vote. Ellis? Yes. Madera? Yes. Thomas? Yes. Wilts?
- Yes. Tiedemann-Smith? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Right. Thank you, Comptroller Goins. Next, we
- have a report from Romkey about their plastics recycling in the Hefty Renew program.
- Yes, we have Derek Carpenter on teams if he could be promoted so he can present to the board, please.
- Hello everyone. Hi, could you activate your video please if you don't mind unless you're in the car
- or something? Just got back.
- from Cincinnati actually at our facility up there. Ask me a couple questions about the plastics recycling
- that we receive from the waste reduction district and just wanted me to talk a little bit about it.
- So. If you're not familiar with the process, what we are collecting from and picking up from your different
- stations we take to our facility.
- on production drive, it is then transported from there to our facility in Cincinnati. Cincinnati has
- optical sorters, humans, robots, eddy currents to sort those different items, specifically PET bottles,
- so that'd be water or soft drink, most likely, milk jugs, so it's HDPE natural, or
- more detergent bottles and items like that. There's also an HTTP natural, which is your number two.
- And then lastly, polypropylene, which is going to be more like yogurt, butter tubs, sour cream, items
- like those. All of those are accepted within this program and sorted. And once we get enough, we end
- up bailing those. Those end up going to end users.
- I have a couple that I did share with Tom. Didn't know if that is what more information you wanted on
- that. Just a couple a couple notes on in 2025 that Cincinnati facility had an 85 percent recovery rate.
- So that includes every ton that we received. You know that's not specific to the waste reduction district.
- About 8 to 10 percent of that is going to be
- material we didn't want anyway. So we have your recovery rate somewhere between 93 and 95% for materials
- that are going to Cincinnati. Some of the end users that we utilize is KW Plastics. They would take
- the milk jugs, the yogurt tubs, and then Tab Packaging is another partner that we have that would take
- the PET bottles. And we also work with
- For items that would be more like an other or for some reason didn't get sorted correctly, we'd go to
- Eastman, which is doing kind of like a reverse engineering, if you will, of plastics. It's called paralysis.
- And so they're actually taking it back to oil, believe it or not. What questions do you have on the
- program itself? And is there anything that I could
- potentially answer. Oh, I'm sorry. Actually, before we get to that, I know you all want to talk about
- the hefty renew program. The hefty renew program is currently being piloted in our Cincinnati location,
- so it is a partnership with us and hefty that we can. I believe it's five counties within with within
- Cincinnati and northern Kentucky that it can take styrofoam
- Let's say like dinner, silverware, right? Like one use silverware. I guess it wouldn't be silverware,
- it'd be plasticware, right? Shrink wrap, chip bags, right? Items that are very hard to recycle. We are
- currently doing that with them. There's an orange bag that residents,
- put into their trash can along with their single stream. So it'll go in their single stream in the orange
- bag. And honestly, all we are doing is hand pulling it out when we get those bags. The bags are sold
- at grocery stores and I believe some hardware stores as well. So the Kroger's, Meyers of the world,
- the Lowe's, the Home Depot's of the world. That is currently what is happening.
- We've had a few folks similar to you all asking for it to be expanded. Where we struggle with expansion
- is we're not the only recycler, we're not the only processor in Bloomington and surrounding areas. In
- that Cincinnati market, there really aren't, there isn't anyone else who is taking this material similar
- to we are. So we're, us and Hefty have both
- It's been slow, if you will, or hesitant to expand it because we don't want the other folks in the industry
- getting these orange bags, a resident doing what they think is correct, and then it ends up in the landfill.
- So I'm saying all that to say that our competitors are going to receive these orange bags if it would
- be expanded to your county.
- specifically to residential. If there's a way that maybe we could try to do it potentially at like your
- drop sites, that might be a conversation that we could have. I would need to get that approved from
- my end, but I don't think that we'd be able to have it go to residents. Sorry, I'm getting a phone call.
- All right, thank you so much, Mr. Carpenter.
- Um, are there questions, um, about the plastic recycling or, um, specifically the hefty renew program
- commissioner Thomas? Yes, I've been, um, an advocate for adopting this program and I think it would
- only work if it, if it came out of our drop sites, um, our rural transfer sites. So I think that would
- work. Um, and.
- I also have a question about sort of the grocery store style bags as well being accepted. Yeah, sorry,
- I tried to decline a phone call and it accepted it. I don't know if you all can see me or not. I've
- got a blank screen actually. Can you hear me at least?
- Yes, we can see you and hear you. Thank you. I can't see you. All good. The grocery bags, not something
- that's acceptable within our program. It could go into a hefty bag, but it was a tangler for some of
- our machines, how they currently are set up.
- And that was my question was whether the hefty program accepted those as well. We do have a few grocery
- stores that take them here. But I know that a lot of them end up in the landfill, unfortunately. So
- I would appreciate it if we could move forward with having some conversations about using our drop sites
- to collect this. And I don't think it's confusing with our trash program, which is also an orange bag,
- but it has very different lettering on it. So I could see that we could get around that and we can make
- this work. So I'd be very, very happy to see this moving forward in terms of conversation with Rumpke
- and then with our district. Thank you.
- Are there other questions for Mr. Carpenter? Yes, Councillor Wells. Does the HEFTA program take the
- soft? Yeah, I wasn't clear on that either. What was the question? I'm sorry.
- cutting out a little bit. Does the hefty program accept the grocery store plastic bags? It would.
- It would. Okay, great, that's awesome. Shrink wrap, if you would happen to get some of that at home,
- it would be Ziplocs. Yeah. Yeah, so it does take flexible. Okay, soft plastics, that's great.
- So Commissioner Thomas indicated support for kind of moving forward with conversations around this program.
- Is that something that you are able to facilitate? So I'll take this back to my manager and talk about,
- having it only being a drop site. If it's only a drop site, I think that we can make that work. We were
- mostly worried about it going to residents and ended up at other folks. So I think that it's something
- that I could at least get piloted at worst case. Okay. Yeah, I think it'd be great to explore a drop
- off system.
- It is a little confusing that the hefty renew bags are orange and our bags are also orange, but we'd
- have to be very careful in our messaging. I have a question about the end use or reuse of the bailed
- plastics from your Cincinnati locations that you mentioned. A couple of companies that
- purchased that plastic from Rumpke. You mentioned one of them reverse engineers the plastic back to
- oil. How do they do that and what's the environmental footprint of that? I wish I was an engineer to
- really help you with that. Be honest with you, I don't know all the way. The company's name is Eastman Chemical.
- I'm not as in the weeds on that is if you show me a bottle or a different type of plastic and probably
- tell you what it is, but I wish I had a little bit more information on that and I can follow up with.
- And is there ever a situation where? Bromkey stores the bailed plastic and nobody buys it and then it
- ends up going into a landfill.
- pretty lucky that we have long term. We've also been super conservative so we have long term contracts
- with folks on on material not only plastics but fiber paper glass and we know that we can't go backwards
- if we say yes to a material. So no is the shorter answer to that.
- You know, we get material, like I said, towards the beginning, we do get material that we cannot recycle
- and that does go to the landfill. But as far as like pop bottles, yogurt tubs, and you know, milk jugs,
- like those are getting. All right, that's great to know. Any other questions for Mr. Carpenter? Yes,
- Councillor Williams.
- Going back to what you said in the beginning about the recovery rate, and I understand you said it was
- like 85%, but that includes stuff you didn't want. I'm assuming that's the non-recyclable items that
- make their way into the stream. So then from the 93% recovery rate,
- the 7% is just contaminated, not clean enough. What is the 7% that's rejected? That's correct. Yeah,
- a lot of it is contaminated. It ended up in the wrong spot. Some of that we are trying to resort. So
- we have a kind of like a rejections line, if you will, that'll put it back into the pile. I will tell
- you that that's ability is getting an upgrade in 2027.
- Our Columbus facility is, even with all of the material that we get, our recovery rate is closer to
- like 95%, period. Wow. And Cincinnati is going to be getting an upgrade to be very similar to Columbus
- in 2027. So that's positive statements for the future. Yeah. That material.
- This has been really, really interesting. Thank you so much, Mr. Carpenter, for joining us. Any other
- questions? Right. And we'll try to follow up about possibly doing the HEFTE program as a drop-off. Mr.
- McClasson, anything else? I'll work with Tom and Joey on some logistics on that, and also with more
- of the personnel as well.
- All right, sounds good. All right, well then we can move on to our next agenda item, which is resolution
- 202602. Can we get a motion on the table, please? I move that we review and accept the resolution 202602
- to amend the waste reduction district of Monroe County bylaws.
- second. All right we have a motion and a second. Mr. McClassen could you please tell us about
- this resolution? Yeah so interestingly enough when Mr. Ellis was appointed to our board and was getting
- him materials I thought that he needed to prepare to be in this position it
- Looking at the bylaws that I was sending to him, I realized they had not been updated since we had done
- our name change, since the state enacted laws allowing and governing electronic participation at meetings.
- But we needed to make those updates. You can see in the memo on page 50 of the packet in addition to that.
- There's also some minor language changes in an attempt to clarify how meetings are noticed, that it's
- in accordance with the open door law, the payment of claims under the resolution 2022 that allows for
- claims to be paid without prior board approval, and CAC appointments and reappointment.
- So you have with the resolution, you have a clean copy of the revised bylaws and behind that, a red
- line version showing the changes that were made. All right, thank you. Good to get caught up with our
- bylaws to reflect how we do things and what we're called. Are there any questions from commissioners?
- I mean, board members?
- I just want to highlight a couple things. In Mr. McGlass' memo he does say the board may convene provided
- no official action is taken. In my experience almost any action we take would be receiving information.
- So I don't really think we can meet without a quorum. I added because it has been a question in the
- past where we've had members have to leave before
- meeting adjourned and whether or not we could continue the meeting. We can as long as we don't talk
- to each other or hear anything. Yeah I think it's uh it would be safer to to say that we could not meet
- at all um for all practical purposes. I'm reading that I was trying to think what what I mean yeah what
- would there be left to do
- I guess we could go out for a drink or something. The other thing that caught my eye when reading through
- the bylaws is that the appointment, let me find, in section 3.3, members of the board, paragraph A,
- the term of directors who are elected officials and appointed to the board from the membership of an
- executive legislative or fiscal body
- have terms coextensive with the director's term of office on that body. So this is not how
- we've traditionally had the appointments from the county council, which have been made separately every
- year. And actually, until a few years ago, the city council also was making them every year until we
- discovered that we weren't supposed to.
- Maybe that's something, Councillor Welch, you can. I will make note. But that would also be for years.
- We do it yearly. So if I could clarify, because I raised, with regard to the county council appointment,
- I have raised that issue with the council office and their attorney is looking at it. However, I would
- note for the record that what's in our bylaws is the statute verbatim.
- So that is what it is. So but but what that section also is the statute requires the county council
- to appoint somebody to our board. And in Mr. Ellis's case, the seventh member of our board is appointed
- by the commissioners from
- um the executive or legislative body of the municipality not having the largest population in the county
- And the statute does specify that that is a two-year term Even though it's an elected position Even
- though mr. Ellis's position is elected but in our case, you know That could be from either the ellisville
- town town board or the steinsville town board
- There are two municipalities not having the largest population in the county. Historically, we have
- always had a representative of Ellsville on our board, and that's worked out fine. But the way that
- the statute is written, that seventh position is identified separately and specified to have a two-year
- term. Right, and it's not appointed by the town board of Ellsville.
- It's appointed by the county commissioners, right? The way it was explained to me is referred to county
- commissioners and they're the ones that actually make the efficient. Right. And I think historically
- the commissioners have allowed the town board to select who they want to be appointed in the commission.
- All right. I will say, I'm sorry.
- my term next year December 31st so I'm on a different cycle so depending on that election I mean we
- can get back on that cycle. Right and that's if you know depending on the outcome of the election we
- would address that if we need to at that. Well that would match the cycle wouldn't it you said it was
- a two-year term for service on this. Right that would be like a year
- Your term will end on our board will end December 31st of 27. Which should coincide with your current
- term in office. All right, any other questions or comments about Resolution 202602 to amend the bylaws?
- to the public. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment on resolution twenty twenty
- six oh two? None. I think we're ready for a roll call vote. Mr. McClassen. I just for the before the
- vote would note for the record that the current and revised bylaws to amend the bylaws both require
- a two thirds majority or five affirmative votes for this to pass.
- I mean, everybody. Yes, so it needs to be a unanimous vote today. I can do math. Ellis? Yes. Madeira?
- Yes. Thomas? Yes. Wilkes? Yes. Piedmont-Smith? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Thank you,
- Mr. McGlasson, for bringing that
- us and that this is our bylaws uh we'll move on to resolution 20 2603 um do we have a motion this is
- the resolution to amend the district approved vendor list uh i move that we review and uh
- resolution twenty twenty six oh three to amend. Strict approved vendor. It- commissioner Madero seconded
- so we have motion a second. Mr glass and could you take us through this this is becoming very familiar
- here. We keep on revising it. Would refer you to the memo on page seventy three the packet- and-
- This is something that we do need to update from time to time. Yes, it does seem like it's happening
- more frequently of late, but we have had some name changes of current vendors, some new vendors that
- we're using. But I think in this revision, this request, the big one is adding Amazon Capital Services
- to our vendor list.
- As indicated in the footnote on the memo, our Amazon business account allows us to be invoiced for purchase
- if we so choose. We have some things like Sharps containers that we will buy in bulk off Amazon. Currently,
- that is the best price that we have found for those. And rather than
- putting a significant expense on the credit card. We would prefer to be invoiced for that. And then
- the other issue that came up with the recent grant award, where in the terms of the grant, we request
- that the district purchase the materials, if the grant request is for the purchase of any supplies or
- materials,
- that we make those purchases directly. And again, Amazon was the vendor identified by the grant recipient
- where they would like to purchase those products. And that was a $3,000 grant award. So we again didn't
- want to put the significant expense on the credit card. Also think that for the purposes of grants,
- It's a cleaner process if we're doing that and having a separate invoice for that purchase rather than
- on a credit card bill with multiple other purchases included in that. So that's the reasoning for asking
- for Amazon Capital Services to be on there, you know, with the understanding that, you know, we're not
- going to invoice every 20, $50, $100 purchase that we do through Amazon. It would be larger expenses or
- expenses specific to grant awards. All right, thank you for that explanation. Then we have a few name
- changes and catching up with getting back the green up network on our list and things like that. Some
- new vendors or some, I guess, not necessarily new vendors, but new to get added to the list as we counter
- gotten to the point where we're regular transactions with. Right, any questions for Mr. McClassen on
- this resolution? Comments? Directors? Is there any member of the public who would like to speak on resolution
- 2026-03? Right, seeing none, I think we're ready for roll call vote. Thomas?
- Yes. Wilkes. Yes. Edmonton-Smith. Yes. Ellis. Yes. Vera. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Right, thank
- you very much. Moving right along, we have resolution 2026-04, Monroe County landfill financial assurance.
- We have a motion. Yes, move to approve
- Resolution 2020604, which is the waste reduction district Monroe County landfill financial assurance.
- All right, it's been moved and seconded by Commissioner Madeira. Mr. McClassen, you want to take us
- through this annual exercise, please? Certainly, and I'll get a little more detail for Mr. Ellis's benefit on this.
- The state does require owners of landfills, both open and closed, to annually make a demonstration that
- the financial resources are available to complete the necessary closure and post-closure work of that facility.
- We annually, there's a formula that's in the Indiana Administrative Code that's used to estimate the
- remaining, for our purposes, post-closure cost for that facility. Our engineering firm calculates that
- for us and provides us that dollar figure, that estimate that we need to make the demonstration on.
- There are seven mechanisms in the law that you can make this demonstration, purchasing bonds, insurance
- policies. But one of them as a government entity that is available to us is a local government financial
- test option. However, the district, based on the post-closure cost estimate remaining,
- We don't meet the revenue threshold to qualify for that But Monroe County does and for the past nine
- to ten years the county has graciously made that demonstration on our behalf So what this resolution
- in essence does is approve staff Taking that request to the County Council again this year to make that
- demonstration on our behalf
- Thank you. Are there any questions from directors? That's our boats. This. There's there too. You sites.
- Listed right. Correct and why. What's the difference once construction what is the construction demolition
- landfill which is as much smaller.
- But that is under a separate permit number from our municipal solid waste landfill. So we do a combined
- total estimate, but for the purposes of submitting everything to the state, we have to separate those
- two permits. But they're at the same location generally? Yeah. Got it. Thank you. All right. Any other
- questions?
- from the directors. Seeing none, we'll go to the public. Is there any member of the public who would
- like to comment on resolution 202604? Right, seeing none, I think we're ready for a roll call vote.
- Wilkes? Yes. Thomas? Yes. Piedmont-Smith? Yes. Ellis? Yes.
- Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Right. Thank you so much. And we'll move on to department reports starting
- with. I just would note because it's absent on the agenda this time. The CAC did not meet in March and
- not have anything they felt the need to provide a.
- So briefly, the legislation session is over. That helps. That makes this report much more brief. So
- as discussed and approved at the last meeting, we did reopen the community grant program for a second
- round of applications. Set a due date for those of 4 PM on Friday, May the 15th with
- plan to be that the CAC would review those at their May 21st meeting and bring the applications and
- the CAC recommendations to the board at their June meeting. To date, we have not received any applications,
- but we have had inquiries and there has been interest expressed in that program. We do anticipate that
- we will get some applications on the second go around for that.
- Rainbarrel and compost bin ordering is a website is still there and available. I would note we did at
- some point yesterday we had a technical issue and it did go down. We had we got a couple of calls about
- that but it was back up and operating before I left the office to come up here this afternoon. So that
- is back up and running. I think April 15th I believe is the ordering deadline and we.
- have orders in and ready available for pickup beginning April the 24th. And then I think the last thing
- that I would just like to know because we've had some discussions about the new website accessibility
- requirements and have reviewed the new accessible rich internet application area requirements and the
- ADA website and their
- you know, fact sheets and so forth about those requirements and the implementation of those. And our
- legal counsel has opined that there is a separate designation in the ADA rules and definitions regarding
- that of a special district government that our attorney believes that
- based on how the state defines us, how the ADA defines a special district government that we qualify
- as that. And that is important because special district government's compliance date is not until April
- 27 of 2027. So we have another year. That said, as we've discussed, we had already begun the process
- of reviewing our website and making revisions and updates and working toward the compliance
- And maybe with a little less sense of urgency, but we're going to continue to work on that and try to
- meet those requirements sooner rather than later and not have to worry about that deadline. With that,
- I would be happy to answer any questions. All right. Thank you. Are there any questions about the report
- we just heard?
- You didn't say this out loud, but in your report, you noted that, I think it was social media, had promoted
- Bee City USA for Bloomington. And I was wondering if you knew of anything about the program, frankly.
- I apologize, I do not. Okay, don't worry about it. Oh, you do? Oh, cool. Yes. Yeah, so Bee City USA
- is something that was brought to us by the City's Environmental Commission last year and the City Council
- approved a resolution to have the city become an official Bee City. And it is spearheaded by Joanna
- Sparks in our Parks and Recreation Department. And they have
- of a steering committee made up of parks and rec, environmental commission members. I think they were
- trying to get somebody from IU and from the county as well. So I don't know exactly who is on that steering
- committee, but it exists. I'd be happy to give you the email of Joanna if you want to. I'll look her
- up. That's great. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions on the administration report?
- I think we can move on to Joey Long and recycling, reuse, hazardous materials, et cetera. Mr. Long.
- Hi, everyone. I will start with the recycling and reuse. Our materials for the art supervisor was on
- a short-term leave. I met with a lot of customers while she was gone and talked to them about stuff.
- And there's a lot of appreciation for what she does. And I just happened to notice her hire-in date
- and we're a little early,
- We're coming up on 36 years of service for Mary Hunter. So we want to say thank you and she has made
- a lot of friends and customers out there. So, you know, we want to acknowledge that and I've been letting
- people talking to a lot of people about what she does. So that's really nice. The hazardous materials,
- the staff will be meeting with the city department hand. We will be doing a training on safety and what
- to expect.
- We look forward to every year to helping the hand department to do two neighborhood cleanups. We assist
- them with what they take and we make sure it gets sent out the proper way. So that's coming up real
- soon. I will know shortly on what two neighborhoods they will do and I will put that out there. The
- rural recycling centers, we,
- I acknowledge there is some gravel work and some potholes starting to show up after the rains and stuff
- again. So we do have plans to work with that. I've met with our contractor and we have some ideas on
- again, how to keep fixing those and slowing those downs. Other than that, everything's been operating
- as normal. If you guys have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. Thank you very much, Mr.
- Long. Any questions on that report?
- I'll just chime in and say, Bryan Park neighborhood, which is in my district here in the city, recently
- did a survey of what the neighborhood wanted to work on together and the number one response
- was a neighborhood cleanup. So those are really popular and I really appreciate the district teaming
- up with HAND to do those. I will actually be meeting with HAND tomorrow. I have a meeting with them
- and I will give that to them.
- Yes, that's great. Yeah, I don't know if Brian Park is going to be chosen this year. I think they recently
- had one. So yeah, I only do it once every two or three years. Yeah. All right. If there are no other
- comments on that report, we can move along to landfill and environmental compliance. Oh, and I do want
- to recognize Mary Hunter. She has been an institution at the
- South Wallet Street Recycling Center and a great steward of our Material for the Arts program. Now we
- can move on to Lee Paulson and Landfill report. Good afternoon, Lee Paulson, Landfill Environmental
- Compliance Director. The report pretty much speaks for itself. I noted in there that we had a
- We had a what they call a soft violation with our NPDs with the treatment plant. Our total suspended
- solids exceeded our monthly average just barely. This is the first exceedance we've had in probably
- four or five years of any type. So it's not really, it's not a big deal, but it's a deal.
- So we made appropriate adjustments with our treatment system and so far since then, we have been in
- compliance with that. And other than that, got through the harsh winter and we're trying to get back
- out there and get ready to get back on some roads and getting ready for our May groundwater sampling
- event. It's not in the report because I just received the verification from ITEM
- that we continue to do what we've been doing, how we've been doing it. Our numbers within our data are
- all fairly consistent depending upon which sampling event it is, whether it's the winter or the summer.
- Marybeth and I are working on that. This year is we're not planting any trees because we filled up the
- areas that we had trees or area that we could plant.
- Marybeth and I are working on trying to tackle some invasive species out at the landfill and the surrounding
- areas. So we're hoping to do that here and there over the next couple of weeks before we get in the
- groundwater. So we'll see how that goes. But if you guys have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.
- All right. Thank you for that report. Are there any questions for Mr. Paulson? I just have one on the
- total cases for 2026.
- that's 48 total cases. But then 15 private properties and 36 roadside cleanups. Is that 48? Are those
- included in the 48? Is that 48 in addition? Because that's 48 total for the year so far. So that's through
- three months. That's a little lower than what we normally are. But considering January and February,
- we're not very conducive to be outside and people doing stuff.
- and it's it's not a number of concerned about concerned about but that's why we're hoping that now that
- the weather is a little better that we can be out and try to tackle some more roads. That does add up
- to. But you want 51 and not 48. That's all I'm saying is. Okay, I might have just mad about matter of my bad.
- Okay, I just didn't know if those were separate from the 48, but they're not. So, yeah, sorry about
- that. All right. I do have a question. The gallons generated, gallons of leachate was really high in
- March. There were 572,000 gallons hauled.
- We saw that we approved a large claim for that hauling as well. Can you just explain, I always get confused.
- So if we have a lot of rain, is that more leachate, less? That's definitely more. The more rain, the
- more leachate. That's just kind of how that goes. March was kind of an interesting time because we had
- such a cold winter and it sustained for a while. So the groundwater froze.
- And as it slowly thawed out, that released that water as well. So on and being there's no ground cover,
- there's no grass really to absorb, you know, start to use that water up to help it grow because it was
- so cold. So we captured all of it, you know, and it was a fairly wet March. So it went from dry to wet.
- and we just had a lot all at once and trying to address it as best we can and that was after we had
- gotten the valve fixed so it was just there was a lot of a lot of moving parts all at the same time.
- Okay yeah I didn't think about the the thawing that contributes to that. If I could add a couple of
- things to that too that uh you know our some time ago you know we when we were looking at
- the relationship between rainfall and leachate generation. Our engineer, we have the outdoor above ground
- retention pond that all the leachate gets pumped into and then either pumped to the treatment plant
- or hauled out of. Well, both area of that, he estimated that one inch of rain will result in 13,000
- gallons of just rain falling into that pond. And the other thing that you also have, you know,
- How about February, but definitely March and a little bit in April? You know, as we come out of winter
- and the vegetation is still dormant, we don't get the runoff from the hills that we get in May,
- June and July. The vegetation's all green and lush and it repels a lot of that rainwater. When you have
- more vegetation, it'll absorb more of that
- Or it also I mean allows less to get into the ground it runs off gets into the stormwater ditches and
- exits the problem now coming into contact with the trash That's it Well, so other landfills Some places
- have No pond or they have a covered pond. I mean you're just pointing out. This is a a
- as a factor, so I'm just curious if it's different elsewhere. Want to know the estimates Mr. Pulse has
- gotten to cover the pond? I know. Cool with it being open. I'm just curious, honestly. Covering the
- pond is something we've investigated, and there's a handful of options that cost aside or are reasonable
- to do, but they're expensive. It's hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- to do that. And there are also a number of facilities that are closer to a municipal waterworks and
- can do a direct connect on the sewer line. Okay, thank you. All right, any other comments or questions
- on that report? All right, seeing none, thank you, Mr. Paulson.
- We now I think are at the point in the agenda for general public comments. Are there any members of
- the public who would like to make a comment? Don't all rush here at once. All right. And then we have
- comments from directors. Would any director like to make a comment at this time?
- I think that is it for today, so we are adjourned. Thank you.