by Matt Marquardt –
MASON CITY – The North Iowa Landfill board voted down a long-term contract with Energy Recovery Specialists tonight.
Due to the absence of several small-town representatives, the contract needed 30 votes to pass and only got 24. Just three members voted in favor of the deal: Mason City, Cerro Gordo County and Hanlontown. The vote is weighted, based on population. Mason City is the largest weighted vote, with 19 votes.
ERS had proposed a $35 million dollar trash to energy plant for Mason City’s south side. Approval of a deal with the North Iowa Landfill was pivotal to their plant becoming a reality.
At this meeting, landfill attorney James Locher went through the contract with the board page by page. None of the Landfill Executive Board members favored the deal, and they explained why to the full board. Landfill Director Bill Rowland sent a letter to the board yesterday explaining why he did not support a contract agreement with ERS, citing a report from a consulting company which questioned the viability of ERS.
The public was allowed to ask questions, and those were answered by attorneys from both sides and the executive board. Many supporters of ERS were present as well as many against the deal. Both sides made solid points. The board itself then asked questions and attempted to make sense of the contract.
In the end, the votes were not there to pass the deal. More on this story coming.
Watch video:
Some reaction to the vote:
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Wow Gail-great answer. You hit the nail right on the head It is nice to be informed.
People here keep commenting that Mason City failed to push this through and create jobs. It was not a vote of Mason City’s to make. It was a landfill of North Iowa vote. If you were working at the landfill you wouldn’t have wanted the project to pass either as vote for the plant was a vote for loss of jobs at the landfill. None of you posting here would have taken a job at the proposed plant, lets face that fact. To the person who posted that there is one of these plants downtown Minneapolis (Bill), there is not. There is not a plant like this in the country. There is the talk of one maybe being considered in Green Bay. This would have been the first of this kind. You can tell from the postings who kept informed and attended meetings. I had family at each meeting. Yarvorsky and CES or RES or whatever name they are going by now changed their stories one too many times. The landfill does not take in the amount of tonnage of garbage that CES first needed so then they changed their minds and said they could work with less. They said 50 jobs to start and when operational and automated would be cut to 20 or fewer. So no gains in employment would have been made. Again, Mason City people, this was not your council, EDC or people’s decision to make. It was the landfill of north Iowa and the council, minus Mason City, Hanlontown and Cerro Gordo County voted in the best interest of the landfill. These people fell pressure to and were puppets mastered by Mayor Bookmeyer, who I am sure drowned his sorrows at some local bar after CES left town. And the rep from Clear Lake was not obligated to vote with Mason City. If Mason City was worried about Clear Lake then they would have been in agreement and not given monetary incentive to Harley Davidson to stay at their current location versus moving closer to Clear Lake by the interstate where they likely would have received alot more business from passing bikers. Wake up Mason City, this was not your business to make or to lose. Tornquist even said at the board meeting held a month ago (or so) that basically everyone knew it was a business that could not succeed, but wanted it voted through anyway. To all you Mason City folks posting here, your time and efforts might be better served getting meaningful, honest and trustworthy residents to serve as your mayor and council members, not a mayor who removes someone (Pam M.) from a committee because he does not like what she is saying and then tells her that she can’t talk to certain people unless she has someone with her to know what she is saying. Your all right, this should be a wake up call for Mason City: get people to represent your city that people all over north Iowa aren’t laughing at, that mayor certainly can’t be the best Mason City has to offer? And Willert can’t be the best to represent EDC? If so, well then, Mason City, you are in trouble. Cudos to representatives from 21 other towns/counties that voted NO. And only three members voted yes. Jeers to Tornquist, Amonson and Micheals for falling prey to a fly by night organization that has been given the old heave hoe at many locations, not just here, and for being puppets of Mr. Mayor Drunkmeyer.
Can’t blame the landfill. They were asked to make a 10 to 20 year commitment without much financial data from those asking them to do it. This was yet another hair brained scheme brought forth by our craptastic city council. Somebody said the word jobs, and they jumped on it without looking at the data. Oh well, back to putting more taxpayer money into downtown Mason City which was destroyed by the city council’s decision to build Southbridge mall.
I also find it strange that the project has always projected 30 to 50 jobs but now in the bookmeyer gazette its 50 plus jobs. More bs from this company.
Tonys vote maybe the one MC is blaming the rejection of the project on but I believe it was the not the main factor. Lack of consistent information, hurry up approach, city halls ram it through attitude, and tornquist nasty attitude at the first board meeting probably caused too much distrust of this project. I would like to think bookmeyer and staff would learn from this but I think this will only enrage his over inflated ego and cause even more secrecy on up coming projects.
To: X
Your use of the word elite is your own interputation not mine.