Agenda - Council - 08/18/1981 - Special

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TO: City Council FROM: W. K. Goodrich RE: Landfill contract update DATE: August 18, 1981 Pursuant to the Council's resolutions I am continuing to resolve the Anoka/ Ramsey contract impasse by pursuing legal action as well as discussion with the relevant parties. The Anoka County staff has expressed some interest in the landfill site be- coming a County facility. To my knowledge this has not been discussed on the County Commissioners level. The City of Anoka Attorney, Ralph McGinley of the County and I have met for the purpose of determing the feasibility of such an undertaking. Very few details have been discussed and there are at this time many more questions unanswered than answered. I can however, advise you of the following: l) The Waste Management Act adopted in 1980 by the State Legis- lature grants the County the authority to license landfill sites and thereby designate which site will or will not operate. This authority includes the ability to operate the site if the County so desires and gives the County the right to override local zoning. Legally, the County does have the ability to direct all dumping to a site it owns and deny dumping at any other site or in effect create a landfill monopoly for its own benefit. Politically, I do not know if the County Commissioners would endorse such a policy.' However,'in this regard you should be aware that the County ia presently looking at a site in Bunker Hills in Coon Rapids which site the Coon Rapids City Council has endorsed. I do not know if the Coon Rapids site would meet the County's capacity criteria as designated by the Met Council or not. If it does, then the Ramsey site would be less interesting to the County. 2) A County takeover of the Ramsey site would be a plus to Ramsey in that the County would assume all liabilit~. Theroretically since the County now licenses the landfill all problems (citizen complaints, etc) would be referred to the County thereby relieving Ramsey of this problem. The County would create a top notch recreation area out of the finished site and be responsible for the maintenance and operation of the park. The County feels it has the staff and more expertise in this area than either city as well as better connections to Federal and/or State grant funds for park development. The County would pay Ramsey and Anoka a per- centage of the landfill profits'and methane profits which would then be net dollars which could be put into our general fund.