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Show Feds Pay For Flood Trash By GARY R. BLODGETT News Editor BOUNTIFUL - Board of directors of the Bay Area Refuge Disposal (BARD) jokingly suggested that Manager Elmer W. Barlow be given an additional title of "official bill collector." IT CAME ABOUT when Mr. Barlow, former for-mer Bountiful Mayor, reported to the board that all of the BARD outstanding bills which had been termed "uncollectable" before he was appointed manager have now been disposed dis-posed of. Asked by this news writer what his "success "suc-cess ratio" was, Mr. Barlow sheepishly answered: "Well, not too bad." HE RELATED that of the S 13,800 in bills which were past due and uncollectable for a long time, only about $700 had to be "written "writ-ten off as bad debts and uncollectable. "That means I collected a little over SI 3.000 of the S13.800 in debts that were at least 60 days overdue," he said. "Most of the debts were several months overdue." AT THE same time, Mr. Barlow noted BARD has received S7.250 from the Federal Emergency Management Act (FEMA) for work done at the garbage disposal plant in connection with refuge and debris brought to the site as a result of the spring floods and mud slides in the area. He told the board thai an additional S36.O00 sought from FEMA because of the impact the flood debris had on the disposal site has been denied. MR. BARLOW noted that the FEMA re- quest for garbage collected w as refused because be-cause of a stipulation in the BARD agreement agree-ment between cities that says "all garbage and debris from the six cities of south Davis County will be received without additional cost other than specified in the agreement." Alan Low, recorder for BARD, told the directors that collections this year are "a little ahead of estimates with 79 percent collected col-lected for the first nine months. Seventy-five Seventy-five percent collection would have been right on schedule, he noted. HE SAID a preliminary operation and maintenance budget for 1984 is being prepared pre-pared and should be ready for review by the board at the next BARD meeting on Oct. 25. In other board action during the very brief public meeting, BARD members voted against extending the BARD hours an additional addi-tional two hours - from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday nights. "WE EXTENDED the hours four weekends (Fridays) during September because be-cause of the public demand and there were a total of five customers who responded during dur-ing the entire month," said Mr. Barlow. Board members agreed, however, that extended hours should be granted in the spring and fall during the heavy cleanup periods. They said this proposal will be reviewed re-viewed again in the spring wilh an earnest attempt to have proper publicity about the extended hours. IN FINAL ACTION, Ihe board agreed to appeal the decision of the Stale Air Quality Board that an acid-scrubber mechanism must be installed on the proposed garbage disposal plant in Clearfield. BARD chairman Bob Palmquist, mayor of North Salt Lake, said the acid scrubber on the exhaust system -- designed to prevent pre-vent so-called acid rain from being emitted from the plant -- would cost about $2 million to be installed. "BUT IT would cost an estimated S2 million mil-lion to S4 million per year to maintain the system," the chairman said. "The plant is designed to be about SH) percent pollution free but now the state is requiring an acid scrubber which would make the emission.1'- to 96 percent pollution free." He noted that more than 20 similar plants in the United States and some 28 plants built by the same developer in Europe do not have the scrubbers. HE ASKED as many BARD board members mem-bers as possible attend the public hearing before the Slate Air Quality Board scheduled sche-duled for Oct. 26 at 1:30 p.m. in the Davis County Commission Chambers. Davis County Courthouse in Farmingion. The board also decided to "deny at this time" a request by a local developer, Ron Heyns, to build a small, 16-megawatl power and garbage disposal plant near the BARD site. "HE JUST doesn't have Ihe track record that is needed for such a large project," commented Mayor Palmquist. "There arc-no arc-no similar plants in the western United States for us to visit and w e just don't have enough confirmed information to make such an important decision at this lime." The board agreed. FOLLOW ING Ihe brief board meeting in Bountiful City Hall, the group departed for an on-site tour of the disposal (BARD) sile. |