If everything goes as planned, Dem-Con and Shamrock Companies will file their industrial landfill permit request with the city of Cloquet on Friday, Aug. 20. That filing will start the clock ticking, giving the city 60 days to process the permit request.
While the jury's still out on the landfill proposal itself - no one wants to rush to a conclusion about any landfill - the city of Cloquet and Dem-Con staff should be commended for being so proactive with this process.
No one who reads the paper, watches city council meetings on TV or follows the city's website could rightfully say they weren't expecting this. After all, it was early June when Dem-Con officials made their first appearance at a Cloquet City Council meeting to explain exactly what they were proposing.
While the council did not enact the 120-day moratorium on landfill permits that City Community Development Director Holly Butcher had asked for at that meeting, they did hammer out a pretty good deal with Dem-Con owner Mark Pahl to delay the company's permit request and to pay for a landfill consultant to be hired by the city. Since then, city staff and members of the Cloquet Planning Commission have been working with that consultant as well as Dem-Con staff to educate themselves about landfill issues and the permitting process.
Area residents deserve praise as well for turning out in force for a public meeting Aug. 4 (likely thanks to the 260 meeting invitations Butcher sent to residents and others prior to that informational meeting at Cloquet City Hall, as well as the Pine Journal preview story the week before).
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More than 60 residents attended that meeting. They listened politely, asked smart questions, brought up the fact that the city hasn't done the best job of monitoring the gravel pits that neighbor the proposed landfill and, ultimately, gave city staff plenty to think about.
The best time to get involved in local government decisions is early in the process, which is exactly what residents did by attending that meeting.
Raise your questions now to city staff or directly to Dem-Con - be a part of the process, rather than an irate, after-the-fact latecomer.
Make a difference.
For Your Information
Anyone who wants to read up on the process online so far can visit www.pinejournal.com and look under the "Landfill Proposal" section on the right side of the news page (not the home page). Also, Butcher hopes to have more comprehensive information posted on the city's website at www.ci.cloquet.mn.us by early next week. Find that under the "Legal Notices and Public Hearings" section.
If you don't find the answers you're looking for in either of those places, don't be shy. E-mail Dem-Con engineer Bill Keegan at billkeegan@dem-con.com .
