Daniel Prince
Additional area of debris led to project running out of money
The Jonesville mill site cleanup is at a standstill right now, and it’s all due to money. Town Administrator Michael Tyler informed the Jonesville Town Council Tuesday that the work is 80-85% done. There is some final grading that needs to be done, but the project is out of removal money. He said they discovered a 100’ wide by 200’ long area of the site that used to be the slasher room of the mill was filled with more mill debris that they were not aware of when the project began. He said there was everything from old duct work to bricks to wood, to pieces of an old water tank, and he wasn’t sure what else might be there. He said the debris was anywhere from 4-8’ deep, and he didn’t want to cap it with dirt, as that might cause contamination issues down the road. He said everyone involved in the project agreed that the debris needs to be removed. In a worst-case scenario, he said there could be as much as 5300 tons of material in that area, noting that already, Hepaco has hauled off around 2200 tons of debris.
The catch with the money is that the Commerce Department will not release their portion of the Community Development Block Grant until the local match has been spent. The town had planned to use the county’s reimbursement of tipping fees for the landfill of up to $127,000 as the local match, but the county will not reimburse the money until they get the truck tickets and cleared invoices, which is taking up to 30 days to get paid. He said with the removal money gone and the rest of the grant money tied up, Hepaco’s work has come to a standstill. They will pull out of the project in another week or so if the funding to continue isn’t there, and then the town would have to pay extra to have them come back.
Tyler asked council to approve the town loaning up to $127,000 of its local option sales tax money that it has on hand to cover the local match, which would then release the other $373,000 of the grant from the Department of Commerce. Then, after all the invoices come back, the county will reimburse the town that money. He said Hepaco is incurring expenses of $94 per ton in hauling debris, $45 of which is the actual tipping fee at the landfill. Council unanimously voted to loan the project up to $127,000 in local option sales tax money to use as the local match so that the Commerce Department will pay out the remainder of the grant funds and the project can continue.
We’ll have more from the Jonesville Town Council meeting in tomorrow’s news.