The DeKalb County Ad Hoc Solid Waste Committee met on Monday, November 27, 2006, @ 8:00a.m. in the Legislative Center’s Freedom Room.  Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias called the meeting to order.  Members present were Steve Slack, Vince Faivre, Pat Vary and Roger Steimel.  Staff present were Ray Bockman, Paul Miller, and Bob Drake.  

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

            Moved by Mr. Faivre, seconded by Mr. Steimel, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes of October 2006.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

            Moved by Mr. Faivre, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

SELECTION OF A CONSULTANT

            Chairman Tobias asked the committee if they saw any differences between the two proposals that the committee has received from the consultants on solid waste disposal?  She said that the obvious difference is that one of the proposals was twice as much as the other one.

            Ms. Vary said that CDW stated that they would attend all of the committee meetings vs. Patrick Engineering who stated that they would attend 3 meetings. 

            Mr. Drake said that they should have all of this information and they don’t need all of those hours.

            Mr. Steimel said that he noticed from the latest email that the committee has received is that they are being employed by two Illinois counties recently.  He also noted that our county has used Patrick Engineering before.

            Mr. Bockman said that they participated in the writing of our Solid Waste Plan in the past.

            Ms. Tobias said that she noted on page 3 of their proposal, item #8, that Patrick Engineering will help with the review of the current landfill host agreement and recommend conditions to be negotiated in exchange for lifting the out-of-county waste ban.

            Ms. Vary says that on page 1, item #3, Patrick Engineering states that they will provide preliminary construction and operating costs of one or more transfer stations of different sizes within DeKalb County.

            Chairman Tobias asked if the County has been satisfied with our Solid Waste Plan?

            Mr. Drake said that he has been happy with it since the beginning of it.  He is very comfortable with Patrick Engineering and he would pick Patrick for this project.

            Mr. Miller said that he didn’t see any difference between the proposals and he would pick Patrick Engineering for this project.

            Mr. Bockman said that he agreed with both Mr. Miller and Mr. Drake and that he would pick Patrick.

            Mr. Steimel, Mr. Slack and Ms. Vary all said that they favor Patrick Engineering for this project, too.

            Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Mr. Slack, to accept the proposal from Patrick Engineering.  Discussion followed.

            Mr. Bockman said that now we will have to notify Patrick Engineering of the committee’s decision and we will need to know from them when they can complete the first scope and then this will let us know when this committee will reconvene.

            Mr. Bockman also said that in Patrick’s proposal on page 3, Item #10, Patrick states that they would evaluate the feasibility of a county-owned landfill.  He would like to tell them that the County would not like them to research a county-owned landfill.

            Mr. Miller said that he would like to say that the only advantage would be if the public asked the county, what did you do to evaluate this idea?  We could say that the County Board did legitimately study the feasibility.  We need to say that there was a genuine exploration of alternatives.

            Ms. Vary said that she is curious what the percentage from people moving in is?  With the number of houses going in are we going to increase that 300 tons a day at the landfill and she is curious as to how much is projected? She would like to know what that number would be? 

            Mr. Steimel said that over the past ten years it has increased slowly because of two factors.  The first one being that our recycling efforts has been very good.  The second is that we are not getting the industrial waste.

            Mr. Bockman said that even if the population tripled, it would have to do it in 20 years to get to 900 tons at the current rate.  There is no guarantee that a municipality is going to send their waste to that facility.

Ms. Vary said that she agrees with Mr. Miller that paying the $2700 that Patrick is charging for this portion of the evaluation would be insurance to back everything that we would tell the public.

Mr. Miller said why, since we are looking at options would we refuse to look at one of our options, that would be irresponsible.

Chairman Tobias asked if everyone was in agreement to leave item #10 in.  The committee decided to leave in item #10. 

            Ms. Vary moved to accept Patrick Engineering’s proposal, seconded by Mr. Slack, and it was carried unanimously to forward this recommendation to the full board for approval.

ADJOURNMENT

Moved by Mr. Faivre, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                            Respectfully submitted.

                                                            _______________________________  

                                                            Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias

_________________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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