Minutes - Council - 04/23/1979 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Regular Council Meeting April 23, 1979 - Rage 3 Councilman Cox addressed the group of concerned citizens stating that the Attorney, Engineer and other members of the Council all have different attitudes but certainly share their feelings and understand the problem with much greater insite and realize the seriousness of this situation. It is a whole lot different now than it was back in 1967. The people in this community at that time signed petitions to keep the landfill out only to find out that because this was a Township it had no authority and could do nothing to keep the landfill out. He said he was one of the original petitioners on the Town Board for this Township to become a City and for this very reason. People don't realize that Ramsey became a City only as a result of 2½ years of fighting, three members out of five had to vote in favor of becoming a City. The City of Anoka, at the same time, was trying to annex Ramsey and the landfill. The landfill was one of the first subjects on the Agenda after Ramsey became a City. The City then proceeded to take action against all agencies involved to get action to keep theland~l.lout. Most of the debris is coming from sewered commun- ities into an unsewered community. If the people here tonight are concerned about the community, they could be doing something now about getting our State Aids, there are agencies for all the letters of the alphabet-an endless list of agencies and the only agencies the City got any cooperation from was the County Commissioner Ed Fields and the Health Department. We tried to make the dump something the City can live with because we are stuck with it. The best thing we can do is have a meeting set up so responsible people can come out and answer questions: PCA, DNR, Health Dept, Landfill manager, Waste Management, etc. There are a lot of aspects concerning the landfill that citizens should be aware of. The City is receiving funds to go ahead and see that this is corrected and it is being monitored. Sunfish Lake Boulevard was upgraded and the owners of the landfill paid for the right of way. If it weren't for the methane venting that is being done, basements could have been full of methane gas. He said he went to the Landfill on April 11th just to see how bad it was, the City is on top of it and is aware of what is happening. Mayor Gamec reported that he received complaints by phone on the 11th and went out and talked to people in the area. He contacted the Health Department; PCA; Craig Johnson, Manager of the Landfill; Don Otter, Waste Management. He received letters back from them stating that there is no problem and what they did before was to have people hired to pick up the debris. They are getting a new type of vacumn to clean debris off the fenCe. Ramsey'will actually take over the landfill in 1981. It is up to the City to decide and plan what to do with the landfill. The amount of revenue money received from the landfill to date is $41,599 which is being held in a trust fund for the development of the park at the landfill. He then commented regarding the following: Litter and debris on the road - the landfill will be giving out a leaflet to all contractors who haul and dump in the landfill. The police department will be notified of any violators and they will enforce by tagging the offenders. He talked to one lady who reported that the paper was all picked up in two days. Several people are not aware of what the City is doing. Final cover - when it becomes a park-12 inches final cover plus top soil and sod- a total of about 32 inches of top cover. Tires are a problem because they keep working their way to the top and the landfill is charging extra for them. The landfill notifies the City immediately when there is a problem. Rat situation - he asked three different homeowners if they had seen any rats, response was negative. He went around the neighborhood and talked to people and most of them had complaints other than the landfill. The one rat that was sited happened to be a Muskrat.