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Loon Lake to discuss garbage with TNRD

Rural community gets consultation it was asking for.

Loon Lake residents got their wish for TNRD consultation over their Transfer Station.

A delegation from Loon Lake attended the May 12 TNRD meeting. They were joined by people from Birch Lake and Eagan Lake. Birch Lake recently lost its Transfer Station and Eagen Lake is fighting for theirs.

Loon Lake resident Barbara Hendricks said the meeting with TNRD went better than expected and she sensed sympathy for their situation from the elected officials.

Director Sally Watson made a motion directing TNRD staff  to meet with the residents of Loon Lake Road and Eagan Lake to explore alternative options to waste and recycling management. The motion was passed and will be made as a recommendation to the May 26 board meeting, said Hendricks.

Closure of the Transfer Station to bulky recyclables will be delayed until after that meeting.

Hendricks said they would attend that  meeting also as a delegation to present dozens of signed protest letters.

“Most of us at Loon Lake agree that the issue is larger than our Transfer Station,” said Hendricks. “It is about participatory democracy at the grass roots level - about consulting with people on how things  should work in their community and not telling them how to live their lives.”

Ashcroft Mayor Andy Anderson is also  chair of the TNRD’s Regional Solid Waste Management Plan Implementation committee.

He said their contractors require a certain tonnage to collect specific material from the rural Transfer Stations, and the volume isn’t there in Loon Lake.

At this point, Loon Lake is not slated for closure, he said, but there is a lack of space on site that will limit what can be left there.

Restructuring and  “potential closure” of the rural Transfer Stations is included in the TNRD’s new Solid Waste Management Plan.

The plan is like a living document, he said.

There is a lot of opportunity to come up with different ways to dispose of specific items, said Anderson, that don’t include leaving them at Transfer Stations.