More work ahead as city, county consider parts of SWA agreement

    It’s back to the negotiations table as the city and council continue to differ on sections of a proposed agreement that would dissolve the Southwest Nebraska Solid Waste Agency (SWA).
    At Monday’s city council meeting, lengthy discussion ensued as the council reviewed five areas on which the two entities differ.
    Council member Doug Gaswick has been meeting with the county commissioners in recent months.
    He and fellow councilman Chad Yaw, both of whom are on the SWA board, reported on a meeting of that board earlier in the day.
    Monday’s SWA board meeting was the first held in nearly three years.
    Gaswick believes they are all in agreement that SWA dissolution should be pursued.
    “The county was somewhat interested in buying out the city now, but their big hang-up is the recycling,” Gaswick said.
    “They’re not interested in running that.”
    However, there is stronger interest on the city side to keep a recycling center in operation. The recycling operation, located in Imperial, is part of the overall SWA operation.
    The one major differing point with the county to both Gaswick and City Attorney Josh Wendell is the city’s ability to walk away from the agreement, with notice, if it would ever be the one running the solid waste operation.
    Wendell noted that for several years the agency has operated at a loss.
    “It’s costing more to operate SWA than what the fees are bringing in,” he said.
    “We (city) have to have an exit point as to whether we will continue or not. At some point, we have to be able to ‘turn off the highway,’” Wendell said, should it become too expensive to operate.
    Other than to tweak some wording on the agreement to dissolve SWA, no formal action was taken by the council.
    Gaswick and attorney Wendell will discuss the rewording and present an updated agreement to the commissioners.
    Other areas where the two parties differed include first right of refusal, sale of road materials, county dumping rights and liability.
    It appeared the city officials could agree to the county’s stance on most of those other four areas.

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