The Wadena County Board handled a number of tornado related matters at its July 6 county board session.

Solid Waste Director Mike Hanan reported the status of the debris management process. Hanan and Tammy Ehrmantraut, supervisor of the county transfer station, estimated that over 20,000 tons of tornado debris have been deposited at the old airport site.

Otter Tail and Wadena counties and the City of Wadena received approval from the MPCA to continue to operate the temporary debris site at the old airport. Now that the emergency phase of the cleanup is over, the counties and city must be more restrictive about loads accepted at the site.

MPCA requires that only certain materials be accepted from now on. The debris loads accepted must be pre-sorted. Only the following materials can be deposited at the site, effective immediately: tree waste, scrap metal, masonry products, furniture and demolition debris.

Appliances, electronic devices and household items must now be taken to the Wadena County transfer station or one of the Otter Tail County transfer stations.

All loads for the airport site will be inspected at the gate. Any load that is not properly sorted will not be accepted. Unsorted loads must be taken to the transfer stations where posted rates and charges will apply.

The county board also approved Hanan’s request to hire two more emergency temporary employees, one to be the gate attendant out at the airport debris site and one to work at the transfer station. These employees can work for 67 days under their temporary status. Hanan said he needed them to help manage the debris removal process and allow him to assure MPCA that a certifi ed operator is on the site at all times. They will be paid $9 per hour for the gate work and $11 per hour for the transfer station work.

Hanan and County Engineer Ryan Odden asked about the overtime that everyone has been putting in because of the tornado. The county has a policy that managers and supervisors are not paid for their overtime, but instead are allowed to accumulate extra hours or

compensatory time,” and

then take paid time off, or “comp time.” The county

policy allows only 40 hours to be accumulated, and then must be taken within a certain time period, or else lost.

Hanan asked that Tammy Ehrmantraut be allowed to accumulate more than 40 hours of comp time, and receive an extension of the time to use it, until the end of the year. The board approved the requests for Tammy Ehrmantaut from solid waste and for Odden, assistant engineer Jeff Adolphson and for Maintenance Foreman Vern Kemper, until Dec. 31, 2010.

Hanan said he did not expect to receive comp time because Otter Tail County, where he is also Solid Waste Director, does not allow managers to have comp time.

In other matters, the board :

o DISCUSSED, at length, a bill from the highway department to the solid waste deparment for services provided by the highway department. Odden said the highway department charges other departments at a rate that is 1.6 times the hourly rate of the workers involved. He explained that the 160 percent labor charge is made in order to cover the highway department’s costs for worker’s compensation insurance, retirement contributions, health insurance, and other employee benefits. Odden said that a bill his department had submitted to the solid waste department in 2009 had not been paid because solid waste objected to the 160 percent labor charge.

Eventually, the board decided to refer the whole matter to the department head committee, which meets monthly, so that they could recommend how or whether county departments should charge each other for their services.

o APPROVED Odden’s request to purchase a new tandem snowplow truck, for which he had budgeted, from Maney International, via state bid, as at saving of $17,000 from his budgeted item.

o APPROVED Odden’s request to begin advertising for bids on two construction projects, both bridge replacements, to be done this fall with state bonding funds.