By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Efforts to resolve the county’s deteriorating waste transfer station got a shot in the arm at Monday’s city council meeting when council members approved initial analysis of a location proposed by county officials.

The county proposes building either a temporary or permanent transfer station on city-owned property across Washington St. north of the transfer station’s present location.

Two county commissioners, Randy Dallke and Dianne Novak, attended the meeting to hear a presentation by BG Consultants, an engineering and architect firm working with the county on transfer station problems.

Engineer Bruce Boettcher showed council members drawings of two potential temporary metal buildings, one designed for minimal use and the other for longer use.

“Right now we’re looking at the minimal temporary building,” Boettcher said.

He said a temporary building could later be used by road and bridge department, or sold to a private business for light industrial use.

Mayor Todd Heitschmidt said he thinks it’s good to have a different use for the facility when the county no longer needs it.

Dallke said storage has been “a big item on our list” for several years, but “perhaps a business would want to buy the building later.”

“It looks like maybe the city has about two blocks available,” Boettcher said. “I’d say for something like this, one block is the minimum.”

City council member Chris Costello asked how long it would take to complete building on the site.

Architect David Devore projected about a year to complete designing, bidding, and building a simpler temporary facility, and two to three years to complete a longer-term use building.

“If we could get it done as a permanent location in the same time frame, that would be great,” Dallke said.

Devore said a soil analysis will be needed before plans for the building can be made. The farther beneath the soil a foundation can go, the more likely a permanent building can be erected on the site, he said.

City council members voted to allow BG to begin geological studies of the proposed building site.

Heitschmidt said the city will begin to look at what the land would be worth if the county buys the site.