Plan to open recycling center in Boyceville

BOYCEVILLE — The village board gave its approval for a private firm to open a recycling and type 4 salvage yard in the community.

Albert and Joanne Quakenbush appeared before the village board at their regular monthly meeting Monday evening, December 10th, and told the board of their plans. They will be located in the former Hedlund building on East Street and will accept many items for recycling.

Joanne Quakenbush indicated that they accept almost all types of items that can be recycled. “We want to keep it out of landfills,” she told the board. They will accept over a dozen different types of plastics, scrap metals, cardboard, electronics and stoves, washers and dryers, but they will not accept refrigerators, freezers or air conditioners. They will also accepted old vehicles.

She said that vehicles are stripped of their batteries, tires and gas tanks and then shipped to salvage yards or firms that strip off the parts. As for the other recyclables, they package them up into 40,000-pound loads for shipment to firms that handle those items.

No Outside Storage
The Quakenbushs were quick to point out that there would be no storage of recycling items or vehicles outside. “All our operations are within the building and everything is inside,” she told the village board. The only thing that can be seen outside will be the trucks moving recycled items on to other firms, she indicated.

Village board members seemed to be concerned about outside storage and they questioned the Quakenbushs about the operations and how they handled the gasoline left in tanks that were removed from vehicles. They said that it is stored in barrels and then moved off the site to other recyclers.

Village President Gib Krueger noted, “this is new to us and it is a little scary when you hear the word ‘salvage’.” But the Quckenbushs repeated that all the items would be stored within the building until it was shipped out in 40,000-pound loads.

Other Village Business
In other items that the village board talked about, there was a report from board member Herb Dow about a check. “We received a $6,396 check from ATT,” Dow told the board and we did not know what it was for. But he indicated that they contacted ATT and it was for the 2012 additional land lease of the cell phone pole on village property. Dow said that we thought it was part of their monthly payment.

The board approved an operator’s license for Felecia Diaz and a building permit to West CAP for re-roofing their building just west of the village hall.

They also heard Police Chief Dan Wellumson’s report and that his department had issued 15 to 20 warnings about winter parking and that they issued over a dozen citations on Monday following the snowstorm.