CHAFFEE CUTS TRASH FEES FOR TWO LOCAL INDUSTRIES

CHAFFEE - The Chaffee City Council Monday approved a motion to cut trash fees, but only for two customers.

On a motion by Ward 4 Councilman Brad Bader, the council approved a 10 percent discount in trash removal fees for any factory with six dumpsters or more. That covers just Columbia Sportswear and Thorngate, said Bader.

Bader, chairman of the city's Solid Waste Committee, said problems have existed at Columbia Sportswear with the factory's dumpsters because they sit in gravel. Trucks have had problems dumping them, he said.

But Columbia, he said, has agreed to put in a concrete pad behind the factory for the dumpsters to sit on.

"I think it would be a good public measure by the city council to give them a 10 percent discount on their trash removal, or $80," Bader said. The city charges the factory $800 a month for its trash disposal.

On another solid waste issue, Bader said he thought the city should look into establishing a compost operation at the old sewage treatment plant off Highway 77 at the north city limits. Mayor Ron Moyers consented to Bader checking into the matter further.

City Administrator Reece Brown announced Monday that the Scott County Commission has decided to have the county become part of a regional solid waste management program.

At the council's last meeting on Jan. 20, Moyers expressed concern over the county not yet joining the program. He said the programs were taking place across the state and that if Scott County did not join, the city of Chaffee could face as much as $15,000 more a year in costs. The mayor said he didn't know the source, or sources, of the increased costs though.

Moyers had said the regional program would include six counties, counting Scott County.

City Attorney David Summers said he contacted the city's bond counsel in relation to the bond issue that will fund the upgrade to the city's wastewater treatment plant. Summers said everything was in order.

Council members Monday also voted to purchase a two-ton dump truck, with 25,000 miles, for $4,500 from Ernie Duncan. Brown said he believed the truck was a 1978 model.