City recommended for transfer station funding

A city of Powell plan to build a closer drop-off point for its garbage is drawing closer to reality.

Unless Wyoming leaders differ with State Loan and Investment Board staff, the city of Powell will today (Thursday) receive the $652,502 it requested to help build a garbage transfer station east of town.

The Federal Mineral Royalty Capital Construction Account Grant would provide just over half of an estimated $1.23 million bill for the facility, with the rest of the cost covered by the city.

The transfer station is intended to serve as a new drop-off point for the city of Powell’s trash when the Powell landfill closes to household waste. That closure is currently scheduled for late summer 2012, leaving the Cody landfill as the next-best place to take the trash. Park County commissioners found upgrading the Cody site and closing the Powell, Clark and Meeteetse landfills was the most cost-effective way to meet costly new water quality regulations from the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The city’s proposal to the State Loan and Investment Board leaves the door open as to where they’ll build the station. The preferred plan is to build an enclosed 80 by 100 foot structure on city-owned property east of town, just south of the corner of Lane 9 and Road 7. But the city also included an alternate proposal to buy a 2.5 acre piece of land elsewhere.

A transfer station would house a compaction trailer, which, when filled, would be hauled to the Park County Regional Landfill in Cody.

County commissioners have generally balked at building a transfer station for Powell, citing a comprehensive waste management study that found sending trash trucks directly to Cody was cheaper.

Powell officials, however, have said a transfer station is the best option and saves money in the long run. They say direct hauling would wear out city trash trucks and create highway congestion with multiple trips a day, on average.

Powell’s project was one of just 14 that State Loan and Investment Board Director Ryan Lance recommended the board fund, out of 36 submissions. A $142,010 city of Cody application for a west strip water project was among those not recommended.

The State Loan and Investment Board, made up of the state’s five elected officials (Gov. Matt Mead, Treasurer Joe Meyer, Secretary of State Max Maxfield, Auditor Cynthia Cloud, Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill), is scheduled to vote on the grants this (Thursday) morning.

City engineer Sean Christensen will attend the meeting on Powell’s behalf.