INFORMATION #2 09-09-1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNTY SERVICE CHARGE ON SOLID WASTE At their September 4th meeting the Sherburne County Board approved a county wide service charge on business and residential waste. The City's position on this issue, outlining its concerns and requesting that at least its residential waste be exempted, was provided to the County Board in writing. A copy is attached to this memo. The County Board reluctantly made their decision after much debate. They felt the service charge was necessary, at least in the short term, to avoid a default on their contractual agreement with the RDF plant. The service charge, which is $24 dollars a year per household and based on valuation for businesses, was only approved for a two years. The motion to approve this tax had a very strong emphasis on finding other solutions to this dilemma in the next two years. ELK RIVER MACHINE City staff responses to complaints regarding storage and debris as they arise. In addition we plan to put an effort into getting other areas of the City cleaned-upped one at a time even though no complaints have been lodged. Because it is readily visible from Highway 10 and somewhat unsightly, the area north of the railroad tracks from Jackson Ave. to Proctor Ave. was selected as staffs first effort at a unilateral clean-up. Thus far we have been successful at getting the debris from the Babinski apartments and several junk vehicles removed from this area. Because Elk River Machine's storage takes up such a large amount of the area in question and is visible from both Highway 10 and Lion's Park, it was to be our next effort. Elk River Machine's property includes three zoning designations: PUD, I-1, and I-2. Staff assumes Elk River Machine's unscreened storage started when it was an allowable use in the I-2 zone and could be considered grandfathered-in. Therefore, our effort here was to persuade Elk River Machine to cooperatively screen their storage. We contacted several different representatives of this company, but have thus far not had any success. Elk River Machine is an important business to Elk River and their storage is necessary to them. Staff looks to the Council for further direction.