At the March 13 meeting of the Urban Top Facility Board, solid waste staff reported fiscal-year revenue gains and falling recycling volumes while the board approved a spring cleanup requested by the city of Lebanon.

Cindy Lynch presented the solid waste report, saying the landfill activity for February left the county “up about 361,000 for the year.” She also told the board that recycling tonnage and related revenue were down for the month: “we were down about 33 tons, and down about $4,000 in revenue.” Lynch noted rising paper and metal prices that she expected would increase revenue in coming months.

The board voted — by voice — to approve the city of Lebanon’s spring cleanup event, with the county to support either March 30 or April 11 as the cleanup date. The motion was moved and seconded and adopted by an affirmative voice vote.

Discussion moved from monthly operations to longer-range siting and capital needs. A board member raised the possibility of finding land for an additional convenience center in the Lakeview area and suggested storing road salt at a new site to reduce long travel times for crews. The same board member described “an opportunity for a $6,000,000 grant” tied to tornado recovery funds from 2020; the grant would be sought to rebuild and relocate the Lagarta/WEMA station so the county could stage major equipment on the west side during disasters.

Board members also discussed whether the county-owned WEMA station parcel might be a prime property to sell to offset costs. No formal action was taken on property disposition or grant application; members said any grant application or property sale would be brought back to the board for consideration.

On operational detail, Lynch reported convenience-center activity for February: “we pulled 373 loads from all 7 of the convenience center for the month of February.” She had no further items for the board other than responding to questions about regional hauling and how weather affected tonnage.

The board placed related follow-ups on the agenda for the next meeting, including further discussion of convenience-center siting, possible salt-storage arrangements and any grant application developments.

Less critical procedural business that occurred during the meeting included motions to approve minutes and to accept a pre-report; both were moved, seconded and adopted by voice vote earlier in the session.