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Resident urges Lewistown to support regional composting cooperative to keep organics out of wastewater plant
Summary
Ashley Rita urged the commission to expand organic collection and support a cooperative, worker‑owned composting facility serving Lewistown and Central Montana; city staff offered follow‑up meetings and noted the city lacks a DEQ composting permit on site.
During the public‑comment period, a resident identified in the record as Ashley Rita urged the Lewistown City Commission to expand organics collection (grass clippings, leaves, tree waste) and to support development of a cooperative, worker‑owned composting facility serving Central Montana.
Rita said she has worked with statewide contacts and schools to build collection capacity and proposed a service‑shared model that would reduce future taxpayer burden by pooling capital and enabling fundraising. She said a recent screw‑press purchase elsewhere can dewater biosolids and that cooperative infrastructure could fill gaps in the state’s current composting network.
City manager Holly Phelps and staff offered to connect Rita with statewide contacts and to meet later in the week to discuss potential partnerships. Staff also noted the city does not have a DEQ permit for on‑site composting and that the screw‑press dewatering option is one way to produce a dewatered biosolid product for off‑site management.
Rita asked the city to consider allowing expanded organics acceptance at city facilities and to explore cooperative ownership models to serve rural Central Montana; staff said they would follow up with meetings and contacts to explore options.
