Pleasanton, La Cygne, Mound City sign compactor contract, other cities expected to fall in

The operation of Linn County's trash compactor in the city of La Cygne and Pleasanton has been the subject of negotiations over the past few weeks. The conflict between the county and the cities over contract points has been resolved. (Journal file photo)

By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – In a phone interview a day prior to the Mound City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 4, Mark Hagen, who is the attorney for Mound City, predicted that the council members would question why he was asking them to approve another contract for the county’s trash compactors.

He wasn’t wrong.

Mayor Wade Doering asked why Hagen was giving them a contract and commented that he thought they had already signed one before.

Hagen said he was correct, but he was asking the council to approve a new contract.

“You can thank Pleasanton for that,” he said, referring to Pleasanton’s City Council. “They wanted input and they got it.”

The Mound City Council voted unanimously to approve Doering’s signature on the contract. That followed the Pleasanton’s unanimous approval of the contract on Monday, March 3, and La Cygne’s unanimous approval a few days earlier on Thursday, Feb. 27.

That same contract is expected to go out to the cities of Parker, Blue Mound and Prescott this month for their councils’ approval. Like Mound City, councils for those three cities approved the previous contract late last fall.

However, officials from both La Cygne and Pleasanton wanted changes. That began a three-month long negotiation with the county over compactor operations in their cities. However, in January the Linn County Commission gave Pleasanton 45 days to accept the contract or have the compactor pulled from their city.

However, the county commission took a step back and hired Hagen to deal with the issue.

Hagen was tasked with representing the county, and over the past few weeks he has met with Pleasanton City Attorney Jacklyn Paletta, and La Cygne City Attorney Burton Harding – along with input from La Cygne City Clerk Jodi Wade – to try to hammer out a contract that met the needs of all the cities.

Here are some of the important points of the new contract:

• Pleasanton has been wanting to move the location of its compactor away from a ballfields and the east shore of Stegge Lake and wanted the county to pay for it. Under the new contract, the cities can decide where they want the compactor, but they are responsible for paying if they want it moved. In addition, the contact calls for any site to have easy access and three-phase power.

• Pleasanton also wanted the county to train its employees on compactor operations, but the contract calls for cities to train their own compactor operators.

• The county initially wanted the cities to take out the state licenses for each compactor site after a representative of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) said that was possible. Turns out, it wasn’t. So the county will take out the license for each site, and that license is to be posted at each compactor site.

• So what happens if a city employee allows dumping materials that are not allowed in the compactor such as tires or cans of paint or does something else that could jeopardize the state license? The city will be responsible for fixing the problem and providing proof that it has been fixed. If it does not address the issue, the county will suspend compactor service.

• As before, the county will continue to rotate the compactor on a regular basis and take the trash to the county’s solid waste transfer station north of Prescott.

• The county will make monthly contributions of $325 to La Cygne, Mound City and Pleasanton to offset costs of hiring compactor operators. Because their compactors are open fewer hours every week, the cities of Parker, Blue Mound and Prescott will receive $225 per month.