Assembly votes to approve gravel removal

PALMER — An ordinance postponed by the Mat-Su Borough on June 15 passed by a 5-2 vote on Tuesday, appropriating $1.5 million to procure gravel removal services at the Central Landfill. Ordinance 21-051 had been postponed after the Borough had put out two separate bids for contractors to remove gravel from the landfill with no bidders. The Borough entered into an agreement with Anchorage Sand and Gravel in 2018 to excavate the C&D cells at the central landfill, which has since been terminated.

“We’ll be continuing the excavation of the current cell. We needed to get it started this summer or we’re going to end up having to stack waste up against the unexcavated portion of the cell which it’s not impossible to deal with that but it’s very costly,” said Public Works Director Terry Dolan. “It’s definitely not prudent to delay until you’re stacking waste against an area that you intend to excavate in the future.”

The ordinance passed 5-2 with Assemblymen Mokie Tew and George McKee voting in opposition. Tew suggested that Borough Manager Mike Brown get into contact with gravel operators that he felt would be able to assist the Borough.

“There’s about $5 million of excavation that needs to occur over the next few years and so the remaining portion of this, there’s certainly a possibility that if we had a proposal to make better use of this material that we could take advantage of it,” said Dolan.

Assemblyman Jesse Sumner moved to postpone the ordinance in June to seek out an alternative to paying to have the gravel removed, but voted in favor of the ordinance on Tuesday.

“I think at this late hour we don’t really have much choice but to do this. Probably getting a contract together with another operator would’ve been something that would have had to have happened a long time ago and if we don’t do it then the reduction in the cell life for the construction debris cell will cost us a lot more in the long run,” said Sumner. “Unfortunately I think we have to do this.”