Cass County Board: Hazardous waste collection days announced for summer

   BACKUS — Cass County will offer five half-day household hazardous waste collection sites throughout the county this coming summer. Environmental Services Director John Ringle shared at the Tuesday, March 15 Cass County Board meeting.

   The special collection days include:

   June 7—1-4 p.m. at the county highway garage on County Highway 12.

   June 23—1-4 p.m. at Lakeshore City Hall.

   July 13—Noon to 3 p.m. at Longville recycling area behind city hall.

   Aug. 10—10 a.m. to noon at Remer Do It Best Hardware.

   Aug. 10—1-3 p.m. at Crooked Lake Township recycling center.

   The county also accepts household hazardous waste at the main transfer station north of Pine River on Highway 371 during normal business hours throughout the year.

   On Feb. 18, Ringle and Commissioner Scott Bruns attended the Northwest Minnesota Household Hazardous Waste Joint Powers Board meeting. Ringle said out of the 9 counties that comprise the joint powers board, Cass County had the highest number of participants in the disposal program, along with the Pine River Transfer site having the second highest drop-off site collection participation rate. Cass County also reportedly had a total of 233 participants at the local collection events, making these summer collection events very successful. It was noted an overall total of 74,140 pounds of household hazardous waste was collected in Cass County last year with the department spending $14,232 on this program, which is spent at no additional cost to residents and paid for using funds from the County Waste Management assessment on property taxes.

   Hazardous waste includes unused paints, stains, varnishes, herbicides, pesticides, some types of cleaners and other materials.

   County Administrator Josh Stevenson shared a summary of a recent meeting by the Solid Waste Committee. It was reported the committee reviewed the requested terms from existing contractors related to expired cardboard agreements. The committee received a request from City Sanitary to increase the number of routes to three per week for Longville and Walker between the months of May and November, which is consistent with current practices. 

   The committee also received a request from American Disposal to update their terms from a pay of $1.92 per mile to $2.25 per mile and the rate for monthly containers from $15 each to $17 each. It was also reported that Waste Partners did not provide updated terms to their agreements to the committee by the due date. However, Eric Loge and Drey Loge representing Waste Partners attended the meeting requesting the board not to approve the updated agreements and have the Solid Waste Committee re-review the contracts with their proposal included. Loge stated they thought the committee was going to sit down to a meeting to discuss certain options before the agreements were reviewed by the committee. The board did not send the contracts back to the committee for further review and motioned and approved the current recommendations from the committee.

   Stevenson also reported the committee reviewed a proposal from Dabill Welding to repair the metal curb on the tip floor in building number three at the Pine River Transfer Station. The repairs include approximately $22,000 in materials and $50,000 in labor costs, which was recommended by the committee to approve the agreement with Dabill Welding. The board motioned and approved the agreement with Dabill Welding unanimously.

   In other business, the county board:

   • Approved an ARPA Grant to Senior Leech Lakers in the amount of $10,000 to assist in connection of natural gas lines and construction to make the building handicap accessible.

   • Approved an ARPA Grant to the City of Cass Lake, pending approval of grant application, in the amount of $50,000 to assist in rehabilitating 15 owner-occupied homes. 

   • Approved the final 2021 budget amendments as presented by Chief Financial Officer Sandra Norikane.

   • Heard a COVID-19 update from public health nurses Jamie Richter and Gina Zubke with overall totals from 2020 to current and stated Cass County is currently in a low COVID-19 community level.

   • Awarded the bid to Traffic Marking for 2022 roadway striping for the amount of $93,339.

   The next meeting are as follows: Commissioner’s board meeting 9 a.m. Tuesday, Apr. 5 at the boardroom in the courthouse annex in Walker; public hearing 6 p.m., Tuesday, Apr. 12 in Lima Township, 7933 64th St. NE, Remer and commissioner’s board meeting 9 a.m. Tuesday, Apr. 19 at the Land Department meeting room in Backus.