Trash relief comes, but only for some
Goessel area to get service; northern county must wait
Staff writer
Goessel-area residents who lost trash service this week, when Waste Connections dropped service to their area, are expected to have trash service soon.
But areas north of US-56 are going to have to figure out how to get their own trash to the county’s transfer station for the time being.
Marvin Nisley of Nisley Brothers Inc., Hutchinson, told county commissioners Monday that his company already had trash routes in the area and had received calls from people in the county.
“Most of the people that we’ve had contact with are in the Goessel area, within four or five miles of Meridian Rd.,” Nisley said.
He also has received calls from residents of the reservoir area, but his company is less interested in serving portions of the county north of US-56 because that part of the county would be less profitable for the company.
Nisley Brothers is interested in the Goessel area because it already has established routes in the area.
“We do a lot of weekly service in rural Kansas,” he said. “The farther I get from home base, the less I am inclined to get excited about this.
“The fewer people there are, the less profitable it is. The closer to Goessel, the more interested I am.”
Nisley said he might be interested in areas north and east of Goessel later.
Calvin Wiebe, who lives in the northwest part of the county, has considered starting up a trash service for about a year but has not yet purchased equipment.
He told commissioners Monday that he’d be interested in serving the area north of US-56.
Wiebe said he’d talked to the mayors of Tampa, Lincolnville, and Lost Springs, and none of them knew how long Waste Connections would continue to serve their communities.
Waste Connections dropped rural residents, but not the towns it serves, this week.
“We’re looking at mostly rural areas,” Wiebe said. “It’s pretty clear we would pick up once a week.”
Commissioner Kent Becker noted that this still would leave some county residents with no service.
He said lack of trash service could be a factor in whether people would want to build a house in the area.
“I think they’re poking a knife into a portion of the county that can ill afford it,” he said.
Chairman Randy Dallke said some households didn’t need weekly trash pickup, but people in the country often do.
“It’s a possibility if you offer service to a part of Marion County, you’ll get more and more and more,” Dallke said.
But Becker said: “You don’t want to offer to too big of an area to start out. You’ve got to break even.”
Wiebe said it might be possible to start collections in February if the county expedited the permitting process.
Dallke asked county councilor Brad Jantz to look at emergency rules to speed the process.
“I’d just like to move forward and let both these companies know we’re wanting to work with them,” Dallke said.
Becker said he hoped Wiebe decided trash service is something he wanted to pursue.
“They’ve been studying it for a year now,” he said. “They just hadn’t bought any of the infrastructure.”
In the meantime, he said, people who live north of US-56 will have to deal with lack of trash service and how to get their trash to the transfer station.
Other business
County clerk Tina Spencer told commissioners Carl Stovall sent a photo showing a large crack along the side of the deck of a bridge on 250th Rd. west of US-77.
Stovall said that he knew of one farmer using the bridge, but that he has avoided it. He said he reported the problem to the road and bridge department but so far nothing has been done.
Dallke said commissioners would pass the information along to the road and bridge department.
To deal with the storage of emergency management items, commissioners agreed to contact the fair board and see whether a fair building could be rented.
They also voted to approve renewal of a cereal malt beverage license for Last Chance Bait Shop and appointed Michael Woelk to the board of zoning appeals.