By Matt Marquardt –
MASON CITY – Creative Energy Systems’ next hurdle to make their $35 million dollar waste to energy plant happen is the North Iowa Landfill Board.
(PHOTO: Proposed location on Mason CIty’s south side for a CES waste-to-energy plant.)
There will be a presentation on pyrolysis (the name given to the process of turning trash into gas) Thursday night at the Landfill, with the board present, by a consultant.
City officials have made it clear they want to hurry the process of approving the CES project as quickly as possible, and the Landfill Board will need to play ball in order to make that happen.
Well before any information had been released to the public about the project, Mayor Eric Bookmeyer on September 27 said that he had “developed a high level of interest in seeing solutions brought to the table to usher this (CES) project through to completion.” In January, he yanked key CES opponent Max Weaver from the Landfill Board, where he had about a 30% weighted vote, and replaced him with with Mason City At-Large City Councilman Scott Tornquist.
Tornquist wasted no time in telling the board how he expects the CES business to be conducted.
In a January 4th, 2012 email to Landfill Director Bill Rowland, Tornquist admits “I have a steep learning curve.” He then lays out to Rowland, who has run the landfill for years, what he expects from him.
He told Rowland what the board can and cannot consider when determining to vote for or against the CES partnership with the landfill (up to 250 tons of trash that now goes to the landfill would be diverted to the new CES plant on Mason City’s south side, thus drastically altering how the landfill operates and impacting job duties of employees, and quite likely the number of people working at the landfill.)
“Specific technologies, potential emissions, etc… is outside the scope of the LNI Board EXCEPT to the extent that it may impact the incoming waste stream that LNI must deal with.”
Tornquist said a decision from the Landfill Board “cannot be delayed to the next regularly scheduled Board meeting (March). We need to make every effort to act on the agreement in January.”
Tornquist then told Rowland to place on Thursday’s agenda an item calling for the scheduling of a special meeting of the Landfill Board on or before January 26th “with the sole purpose of the meeting to either approve or deny an agreement between LNI and CES.”
Tornquist, who now has about a 30% weighted vote on this issue, finished up by telling Rowland “I am quite firm that the LNI Board resolve this issue one way or another prior to the end of January.”
B, where have you been, people have been leaving in droves because there are no jobs…nursing home and hospital employment will be all that’s left around here. Beverly…you should take some gas-x already you are full of it.
How did the chicken get to the other side of the road? Because one day he woke up and it hit him like a ton of garbage. This is insane. After Tornquist’s fiasco and his bullying who can’t see there’s more going on here then just gas. Called greed which is money. They can’t wait for it.
This will get passed we all know it, but watch for the masses leaving this crap hole town. Also what is Behr burning out there it smells horrid.
I am not the plymouth Howie. I don’t even like chickens!
I think some money is getting put in somebodies back pocket here.
Dumb and Dumber
This Howie guy thinks he is one of the in crowd. Bigshot elite because he is on the town council in Plymouth. He can’t even run his own town and wants Mason City to a test site for pollution. If howie was on the Mason City council he would vote for an ordinance to let chickens be raised in town. What a cornball!
Rowland, don’t give into fear mongers like beverly. Beverly thinks because she passes gas, that qualifies her as a gasification expert. Ignore her and her fear monger ways. Time for MC to embrace some new, clean green technology.
I hope to hell Rowland is a tough guy…you can do it Rowland..don’t let someone talk to you like that. What a creep. Liar too remember the library? Knock them down. If for no other reason to show them that’s not right. Guarenteed you will lose your job eventually from this thing. This guy is an alien asshole. What do ya say Rowland..be the man you are and NOOOOOOOOOO all the way. Tornquist got kids? Hmmm he must not care about them. Oh and sue my gassification ass.
The voters do want it…thats way a majority of voters either voted the way they did or chose not to vote at all. I say go for it, exciting new technology could be a good thing for MC.
Finally tonight people from other towns finally see what we the citizens have had to put up with for the past 2 years with Tornquist and why are city council meeting are sometimes called a joke! Here is man that has not even been on the board for one meeting and he is already making demands. I was so proud of the Landfill board! They would not be bullied into making a decision. Here again Janet Solberg was know where to be seen. I don’t care how many city council members are at the meeting this is her ward and she needs to hear ALL sides.
I sure hope we get some better candidates to run for Mayor and City Council in two years. I am thinking by then the people of Mason City will really have had there fill of this Torncoat fellow and Bookmeeker.
PS: There is nothing in this article that warrants suing NIT. What would be the purpose of suing NIT anyway? Is it because you don’t want the information made available to the citizens of Mason City? This suing thing is stupid notion.
Any chance we could see the full text of the email?
I think its great we have a source that finally puts issues out front to the public what the globe refuses to address. Of course the status folks of MC don”t like it.
i like the way the city of mason city does things. if they can’t talk you into it, the threaten you, then force you.
perhaps Mr. drunkmeyer should sober up long enough to see how the real world is.
drunkmeyer thinks he can do want he wants, then say its what the city wants. now with all the new people there now,in about a year i’m so going to love it when i say i told you so.
Libel/Slander like this is going to get this website sued of the face of the internet.
In this case, it is written so it would be libel. I agree, NIT will get sued one of these days.
Once again our so called leaders are selling us out, I wonder how much money is going into the pockets of bearmaker and Thornquist I for one thought at least one of them would get the facts. where there is heat there is exhaust
The 28E agreement that governs the Landfill says that members of the board must be elected officials from the community they represent. Max Weaver is no longer an elected official so was no longer able to represent Mason City, even if the Mayor had wanted him to continue. That said, Scott Tornquist was put on that board for a specific reason and it looks like he’s wasted no more time. Tornquist can’t approve the CES agreement by himself but with the representatives from unincorporated Cerro Gordo County and Clear Lake, he can force it through.
Bill Rowland won’t get railroaded by anybody.
I agree. Bill is no pushover and Tornquist needs to know that the issues the landfill faces has absolutely nothing to do with emissions, pollution, etc.
He is stating what can, and cannot be considered when coming to the decision…
“Specific technologies, potential emissions, etc… is outside the scope of the LNI Board EXCEPT to the extent that it may impact the incoming waste stream that LNI must deal with.”
He is not telling the board, in your words, “What to do, and how to do it.” When it comes to the way a board operates, there are rules and constraints.
Max Weaver was famous for considering crap that had little to do with issues…. It’s called going off on a tangent to waste time and get attention.
A board has a limit to the scope of what they consider when doing business. If the Planning and Zoning Board wanted to question the pitch of the roof of your house, they can question that. But they can’t then question the color of the shingles..
Nice job Discrepancy, in calling out the writer of the article. And who says the media isn’t slanted !? Saying the Mayor removed Max, he should have just said that it was the Mayor’s fault that Max didn’t get elected. Or George Bush’s fault….for that matter.
Mr Marquardt. I think your infatuation with Max had blinded you. I think if I am correct that according to Mason City bylaws that a council member has to represent Mason City on the landfill board. Good solid reporting would have presented this information to you. Maybe even asking the Mayor why he replace Mr Weaver. So the Mayor did not yank Mr Weaver off. If was the citizens of the 3rd ward who did when they did not elect Mr Weaver to represent them for the city. So it was perfectly logical for the Mayor to replace Max with someone.
Would this question be better asked at a beer summit?
We all know what Turncoat is. Where does he get off telling the Landfill Board what to do and how to do it. He is only 1/3rd of the vote. Rowland should tell him to stick his head where the sun don’t shine.