DC Board authorizes advertising for bids to sell former transfer station
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Board has approved a resolution to advertise for bids to sell the former solid waste and recycling transfer station west of Menomonie on state Highway 29.
Dunn County has not been using the former transfer station property since the solid waste and recycling program shut down, and the facilities committee could not see a future county use for the property, said Ann Vogl, county board supervisor from Menomonie and chair of the facilities committee, at the Dunn County Board’s January 15 meeting.
The bids will come to the facilities committee for review, and if the facilities committee determines that there is an acceptable bid, the bid will be brought to the full Dunn County Board for consideration, Vogl said.
Dunn County Solid Waste & Recycling shut down operations as of January 1, 2021.
State law requires that all municipalities belong to a Responsible Unit for recycling by either forming their own RU or joining the RU of another municipality.
Member municipalities decided to pull out of the Dunn County solid waste and recycling program in the fall of 2020 after uncertainty about the per capita fee that would be charged to the municipalities in 2021.
Municipalities had been paying $23 per capita, but the estimates were that for the following year, the per capita would increase to $60 or $80, and at one point, perhaps even an increase to $100.
The 22 townships and seven villages in Dunn County then formed their own Responsible Units or the joined the RU of another municipality.
For example, the Colfax RU formed to operate the Colfax and Elk Mound collection sites, which are both owned by their respective villages and were being leased to the county for $1 per year.
The Colfax RU includes the Village of Colfax and the Towns of Colfax, Grant, Otter Creek, Tainter and Wilson, along with the Village of Elk Mound and the Towns of Elk Mound and Spring Brook.
Sale or lease
The Dunn County Facilities Committee started discussing the lease or sale of the transfer station several years ago.
The transfer station property is 10 acres.
In March of 2017, the Dunn County Board approved purchasing 20 acres from Justin Merritt for a total price of $175,000 to have extra land available for expanding the transfer station.
The additional 20 acres is not expected to be part of the sale.
The transfer station was built in 1991 and had a lifespan of 15 years.
Dunn County extended the life of the transfer station to 30 years before the solid waste and recycling program was closed down in 2021.
In February of 2021, the market value of the transfer station property was appraised at $300,000, and in March of 2021, the estimate to repair the transfer station to bring it up to code was $213,000.
Inspections
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources completed a Phase 1 inspection when the transfer station closed down.
The Phase I inspection of the property did not raise any suspicion that here might be contamination.
The Dunn County Facilities Committee decided at the May 22, 2024, meeting not to propose a Phase 2 inspection of the transfer station property, at a cost of $8,400, to determine exactly what contamination exists, if any.
If contamination was found at the transfer station site, Dunn County would have to report the contamination to the DNR and would have to pay for cleaning up the contamination.
The property can be sold “as is,” and then any contamination would become the responsibility of the new property owner.
In anticipation of selling the property, the Dunn County Planning, Resources and Development Committee held a public hearing in November of 2024 on rezoning the former solid waste and recycling site as General Commercial and has recommended the rezone to the Dunn County Board.
