Zoners want to drop contract with consultant

Members of the Red Willow County planning commission decided they will recommend to commissioners that the contract with the county's zoning consultant not be renewed.

Other topics on the agenda July 11 included financial responsibility, bonding and soil sampling.

Board members voted unanimously to recommend to commissioners that they not renew the county's contract with consultant Orville Stahr, and use funds in the 2002-2003 budget for outside legal counsel as needed.

Zoning Administrator Sue Doak provided a copy of a draft for financial responsibility. Board Member LaVern Leibbrandt suggested 10 cents per cubic foot of waste storage.

That money could be bonded out for a fee, Doak said, or deposited in an account and made available for cleanup of a waste storage site if a business closes.

Board Chairman Dan Wallen will contact Stahr about clean-up responsibility in the county's original regulations, and Doak will contact other counties about their clean-up fund regulations.

Board member Marty Sis asked that more extensive soil sampling procedures be reviewed by the county's planning commission, and possibly included in Red Willow County's regulations.

Doak discussed Natural Resource and Conservation Service nutrient management planning and reporting requirements, which, she said, are more stringent than requirements set forth by the county or by the Department of Environmental Quality, and measure not only nitrates in waste, but also salts.

Doak reported the NRCS has a grant/matching fund program available for intensive livestock operations that helps operators install environmentally-friendly accessories, such as biofilters.