The Ellsworth Village Board discussed and approved a renewed waste hauler contract with GFL which changes the way the village works with GFL.

According to city documents, the most significant change is GFL taking over the responsibility of customer service including complaints, changes and orders. The new agreement will run three years.

GFL General Manager Mark Vinall spoke about a variety of topics including how recycling and trash are separated despite being picked up by the same truck.

Vinall said there are multiple types of trucks currently run in Ellsworth, single commodity trucks that can pick up only trash or only recycling and a split-body that has compartments for both trash and recycling.

“I get a lot of questions about the recycling and the garbage going in the same truck, so that helped me to hear that explanation,” Village President Becky Beissel said.

Vinall also put to rest any confusion of whether glass can be recycled in the village.

“There may have been some times in the past where waste haulers have said, ‘We don’t really like glass or we don’t want glass,’” Vinall said. “The fact is we do accept it.”

Sewer lining proposal

After some discussion on a pair of quotes received, the board approved a sewer lining proposal with Visu-Sewer.

“This is going to take care of some lining of a sewer from a lift station down on Crest Lane up to old West Main,” Public Works Director Bradley Vick said.

Vick answered questions from the board and compared a pair of quotes from Visu-Sewer and Hydro-Klean.

The Hydro-Klean proposal was an all expenses cost of $56,956.70 and the Visu-Sewer proposal was $38,081.25 and a charge of $375 per hour in some areas for “mobilization and other services.” The Visu-Sewer proposal also requires the village to provide water for the project in addition to a dump site and traffic control, city documents state.

Vick expects there to be an area where the added charge will come into play, but expects the Visu-Sewer proposal to end up being less costly overall and recommended the quote to the board.

“I think Visu-Sewer will be cheaper in the long run,” Vick said. “I haven’t worked with them but I know they do good work because they’re at every conference and they always have their booth on display. They were prompt with the quote right away too.”

Old Junior High

The board approved an invoice of $45,600 from December for the demolition of the Old Junior High at 254 S. Chestnut St. Administrator/Clerk-Treasurer Brad Roy said the invoice mostly covered set-up procedures, and future invoices are expected to be higher.

The finances for the demolition are coming from a state trust fund loan, and the board is responsible for giving approval to the invoice according to Roy.