Concerns expressed over household hazardous waste program

McCOOK, Neb. — A former county commissioner expressed concerns about the possible scaling back of Red Willow County’s Household Hazardous Waste program during the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting.

“If we don’t do it, who will?” asked Dick Trail, former county commissioner and McCook city councilman.

Commission Chairman Ted Gans repeated concerns about how county residents are served by a program that collects household hazardous waste in places as far as South Sioux City. However, an ongoing grant specifies the program is designed for Southwest and Central Nebraska.

He said he worries that the county is not covered for cleanup of a spill that might occur traveling from one of those collections.

He indicated he would favor occasional collections where the material, which is supposed to be any chemical that a member might purchase at a big box store, could be brought to a central site.

The majority of the material collected is paint, Gans said, although he said he has not seen records of what is actually being collected.

Trail, who writes a weekly column in the Gazette, said he would explore the background of the program in next week’s column, on Tuesday.

He also noted that money collected by the county for doing the program — averaging $14,000 to the positive over its 27 years of operation — has to stay in the program and cannot be transferred to the county general fund.

At the same time, ARPA money had been used to buy equipment for the program and could have gone to other county uses.

Commissioner Randy Dean added, saying he favored continuing the program, but “we just need to get it under control.

Responding to a jurisdiction question from the City of McCook, commissioners indicated they didn’t oppose the city granting a special designated liquor license for an outdoor event on the Red Willow County Fairgrounds, provided access was controlled.

After a long discussion over the merits of using the hours of operation vs. age of the machine for a trade-in, commissioners tabled a decision on purchasing a new motor grader.

Nebraska Machinery submitted a bid of $243,240 for a Caterpillar machine, while Murphy Tractor & Equipment submitted a bid of $296,161 for a John Deere grader, both with the trade-in of a used machine.

Representatives of both companies were asked to inspect another one of the county’s machines for trade-in, and may even be invited to bid on a second new motor grader for next year’s budget.