How Winneshiek County will pay for improvements at its landfill

One person can make a big difference—even in government.
When David Hageman became Winneshiek County Landfill Manager, the operation had a cash reserve of around $750,000.  Iowa DNR rules require landfill operations to have enough money in reserves to totally pay for the cost of closing a landfill.  Winneshiek County's landfill wasn't even close to that amount.
 
But after more than a decade of operating the landfill, Hageman retired from the job with a cash reserve of not quite $10 million--$9,900,000.  That was more than enough to satisfy the Iowa DNR's demand that Winneshiek County have a $5.7 million reserve fund to pay for closing costs.  In fact, the remaining $4.2 million was available to use for expanding the landfill to include two more cells—a construction project that will cost $6 million, but only will require a $2 million loan, which the landfill ought to be able to pay off in a few years.
 
Current landfill operator TJ Schissel jokes "Dave had to save the money—and I get to spend it."
 
But the greatly improved financial reserves of the Winneshiek County Landfill—the result of hard work by Hageman and the Winneshiek County Solid Waste Board—not only reduced the amount of money that had to be borrowed for the expansion, but the loan will be paid back entirely from the proceeds from the landfill.
 
That's right—the best part of the new improvements at the Winneshiek County Landfill is that not a penny of property tax money is involved.  For that, Winneshiek County residents owe Dave Hageman a big "THANKS!"