Orion Township trustees have some questions about the closure of the landfill at Eagle Valley, with some answers due in 90 days.
The board directed the Eagle Valley Closure Committee on June 2 to compile a status report for the board within three months. The report was requested in light of a recent 14-acre expansion of the landfill which was authorized under the original consent agreement.
The board asked the committee to investigate concerns about estimated revenues coming from the extension, along with a report on the host fees Eagle Valley has paid.
Trustee Michael Gingell, a member of the closure committee, explained that the committee was established when the new township board took office. At that time, Eagle Valley was to close in 2004 or 2005.
“With the extension, it’s open until 2010,” he said. “The committee has been relatively idle. I think it would be good to look at the estimated revenue.”
Gingell said the committee would also look at any obligations the township might still have to Eagle Valley.
“I know some of the neighbors are concerned about being involved, and I’d have no problem meeting with them,” said clerk Jill Bastian.
Trustee Eric Wilson wanted to be sure the possible reimbursement to Hi Hill for the water and sewer project through host fee funds was part of the committee’s discussions.
“No one on this board, that I’m aware of, voted for any expansion,” he said. “This is something that was voted on by a previous board, and we have to finish it up.”
Joseph Geraci, a Morgan Hill resident in the Hi Hill Subdivision, said he hoped that the Hi Hill discussion would not be “buried in a committee.”
“In July 2000 host fee funds were tied to Hi Hill,” he said. “A lot of this documents the light at the end of the tunnel for Hi Hill residents…I just hope this part of the project will not be another boiling point for Hi Hill.”
Geraci suggested the board include some Hi Hill residents on the closure committee. Bastian said they were welcome to the information but that it wasn’t necessary for them to attend every committee meeting.
“None of us ever knew when Eagle Valley would close,” she said. “But we take this very seriously. But it’s not necessarily that there will be a huge windfall…The debt has not yet been paid off.”
Gingell said that he had heard a lot of different information about the closure.
“At the end of the day, we have all kinds of past conversations that have occurred,” he added. “But the facts are the facts.”
The committee of Bastian, Gingell and trustee Michael Fetzer is to report back to the board within 90 days about the concerns of the township, township attorney, environmental consultant; as well as with an update on revenue and expenditure of host fee funds.