Illegal dumping costly for county to clean up
By Brandy Nance
Originally published 01:15 p.m., April 10, 2008
Updated 01:15 p.m., April 10, 2008
Costs of cleaning up illegal dump sites continue to go up in Lyon County, commissioners learned Wednesday during their study session.
Chip Woods, Lyon County engineer, gave Lyon County commissioners a summary of the costs associated with illegal dumping and sign vandalism in the county. Illegal dumping clean-up costs are nearly double what they were last year, according to a document provided by Woods. In 2006, the cost was $24,245.66. In 2007, that number jumped to $42,872.87. Sign vandalism costs are down a bit from 2006. In 2006, the cost was $46,891.72. In 2007, the number declined to $43,702.42. From 1996 to 2007, sign vandalism has cost the county $362,017.12. Illegal dumping has cost the county a total of $160,546.26.
In other business, commissioners briefly discussed complaints Woods have received regarding the bridge closure on Road L, otherwise known as Allen Road. The bridge is being replaced and the road will be closed for approximately 65 calendar days.
“It is not a long duration as far as closing a bridge,” Woods said.
Woods said a number of area residents want a detour posted, lower speed limits on surrounding county roads and dust control. One of those residents is Steve Gehring, who lives in the 2900 block of Road L. Gehring said he was told the county wouldn’t lower speed limits. Gehring, who spoke in an interview with The Gazette earlier this week, is concerned about traffic and weight limits on the surrounding gravel roads.
This morning, Woods said the requests for dust control and lower speed limits are an effect of the Westar peaking power plant being built outside Emporia. Speed limits are posted near the plant, which is nearing its first phase of completion.
“I’ve heard several people mention that,” Woods said.
Later in the meeting, Gehring came in to talk to commissioners. He asked commissioners to put up a detour sign, stating that it’s only a 10-mile difference to route traffic out of the area. He added that, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation, about 800 cars go by his house a day. Commissioner Marshall Miller commented on the detour.
“I think if you put detour signs up it’s not going to change anything,” he said. “They’re going to take the shortest route.”
Commissioners agreed to again address the issue during today’s action session, where they will talk to Woods about the signs in the area.
Miller added that the county doesn’t generally post detour signs on county projects such as the bridge replacement on Road L.
madpoet (anonymous) says...
It's sure interesting that all the comments posted earlier on this article are gone. Goof up or did the Gazette not like what we had to say? I say again that it is no coincidence that the amount of dumping doubled after they halved the # of free landfill days. Commissioners seem to be out of touch with the average county resident. We dodge idiots flying down the road and pick up trash jerks throw out their windows. It is not unreasonable to ask for a couple of portable signs to be put up to encourage people to detour around residental areas. More traffic on gravel roads means way more dust plus the wear and tear on the road. Also it increases the chances of accidents. It's not like they're asking for the moon, for heaven's sake.
April 11, 2008 at 9:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
glarson (anonymous) says...
Madpoet, Kstrebuchet:
You both have discovered a glitch in our internal system for uploading stories to the Web site.
In the newsroom, we encourage our reporters to upload meeting stories as quickly after the meeting finishes. This follows the current media trend of "publishing to the quickest format first," meaning whatever format has the nearest deadline. For media outlets with print, broadcast and Web, the answer to that may change.
So... in this case, reporter Brandy Nance returned from Wednesday's county commission study session, wrote her story and posted it to the Web because it was too late for Wednesday's print edition.
Then, she turned in her story from Wednesday's meeting for the Thursday print edition. The folks charged with uploading to the Web after each day's print edition is published did not notice that Brandy's story already was online. So, it was uploaded a second time and added to the home page.
When I can, I try to catch these duplications and alert the uploaders not to load a story again. Or, I delete the newest story if it can be done before comments are added.
Unfortunately, I have not discovered a way that I can go in and attach earlier comments to a later version or vice versa.
So... the original comments can be found on the Wednesday story:
http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/20...
In the meantime, we'll continue to fine tune our internal processes and welcome any suggestions you may have to improve our online product.
Gwen Larson
Managing Editor
April 11, 2008 at 11:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )