Funds to close landfill still sought

The funding quest continues for closing Glenn County's landfill.

Planning and Public Works Director John Linhart updated the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday about potential financing options.

Linhart said he met recently with a representative from the US Department of Agriculture about getting a USDA loan to close the landfill.

The loan is promising, he said, except for the sequestration issue coming up with the federal government.

"That is the only fly in the ointment," Linhart said.

If the federal agency made a direct loan to the county, it would charge a little more than 3 percent interest and cost the county $580,000 a year in payments on a $5 million, 10-year loan, he said.

A 20-year loan would run $300,000 a year, Linhart said.

The next option is to have a USDA guaranteed loan through a private lender, Linhart said.

However, that will increase the interest to between 5 and 6 percent.

Linhart said a loan at 5.5 percent would run $664,000 a year for 10 years and $418,000 annually for a 20-year term.

He pledged to continue working the USDA on the issue, but added the county still has two years to complete the closure.

"We are under no strict time deadline (to get it done)," he said.

Glenn County wants to close the landfill, located on County Road 33 west of Artois, rather than expand it.

It hopes to send most solid waste to the proposed KVB, Inc. recycling facility near Hamilton City once that project is built.

Studies have shown the KVB project is potentially viable for handling the county's waste stream, but the project has yet to be constructed.

Owner Kara Baker told the board she was sending a letter to state officials Tuesday seeking a map adjustment on the plant site that would take it out of the 100-year flood plain for Stony Creek.

A state agency erroneously listed the land in the flood plain, Baker said, making the Federal Emergency Management Agency think it was prone to flooding.

Her engineer tells her the land is not in the flood plain and has provided maps and surveys of his own to support that contention, she said.

Baker has been working with county officials on the letter, she said, and plans to submit it electronically.

"Hopefully, we'll know something soon," she said.