05-23-1988 - Agenda Packet City Council - regular meeting

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51788.11 01/ Oukli 'll MwING of TOs Mayor and City Council f6Ay 29 1.-B FROM: Mark Bernhardson, City Administrator ).aYY OF OHOW DATRs May 17, 1988 SUBJRCTs Resolution of Support - Alternative Composting Arrangements Attachment: A. Proposed Resolution/City of Medina ISSUE 1. Determination as to whether the City Council wants to adopt resolution urging the County to undertake alternative means for composting. INTRODUCTION - During the past three or four years Hennepin County Aes collected large amounts of leaves at two sites that they have been composting in order to turn the leaves back into usable homes soil. The quality of this product to date has been questionable and the City of Orono .A not get any compost from the County this year because of the extremely offensive odors that were present with this material. (This is in part due to the fact the materials have not been surf iciently aged by the County). DISCUSSION - In addition to the problems of the product's odor the County has a substantial pile of bags of leaves remained unprocessed due to the limited capacity. In an attempt to resolve this problem Wilfred Scherer, a Councilmember from the City of Medina, has come up with a plan whereby the leaves are not composted in a central site the way Hennepin County is doing at the present, but the leaves are spread across agricultural fare land in Hennepin and adjoining counties. The attached resolution is a means to encourage this practice as an alternative to what Is becoming a rather expensive and odorific solution to part of our solid waste problems. It should be noted that the City has been looking at undertaking its own composting on its own site to get a better quality product, hwev^r, because of the limitation on landfills and the cost of the landfills the amount of *garbage" (scrap material used etc.) that is coming with the leaves may ask* it unattractive for the City to undertake. The alternative presented by Mr. Scherer may well alleviate some of tht problems that the City would have in undertaking composting.