Is this how MasterCard would see it?

[Caroline Eader]

Budget allocations for FY2010 to cover the County's budget deficit: $32 Million 1

Construction cost of Comm. Jenkins "crowning achievement" incinerator: $615 Million 2

Annual operating costs of the proposed incinerator: $20 Million 3

Annual maintenance: Millions of dollars 4

Future retrofits: A blank check 5

Litigation expenses from businesses around the Monocacy Battle Field location: Unknown (thousands and thousands?) 6

Cost of terminating the contract prior to the issuance of the bonds: Up to $3 Million 7

The amount paid to the Northeast Waste Disposal Authority to date: Over $400K 8

The ludicrousness of moving forward with this cash burner prior to maximizing waste reduction, recycling and composting and evaluating alternatives: Not Priceless 9

1 Gazette - June 4, 2009
2 FNP - June 10, 2009
3 Pg. 152 of the construction and operating agreement
4 Based upon average Passthrough Costs of Mont. Co's trash incinerator
5 Based upon retrofits which were necessary due to the Clean Air Act Amendment of 1990 which costs Baltimore over $40M
6 Public Hearings in Feb. 2009 and Comm. Jenkins statements on
7 Pg. 49 of the construction and operating agreement
8 Spreadsheet as obtained from the County Finance Office
9 Good ole common sense

Jenkins to support incinerator; vote expected soon Originally published June 10, 2009 By Meg Tully News-Post Staff

A majority of Frederick County Commissioners are poised to approve a proposed trash incinerator at a meeting expected within a month. Commissioner Charles Jenkins, a swing vote on the issue, said Tuesday he was prepared to move forward and take steps to build the plant at a site near the McKinney wastewater treatment plant. "I firmly believe that solving the long-term Frederick County solid waste trash disposal issue will be one of the crowning achievements of this board," Jenkins said. If the project is approved, the county and contractor, New Hampshire-based Wheelabrator, will begin seeking permits and a bond to finance the project. Opponents think the decision could be reversed by a new board of county commissioners elected in 2010. Commissioners voted in late April to suspend deliberations on the incinerator and focus on researching alternatives. Jenkins, a Republican, said he would make a motion to reconsider that decision, and then another to proceed with the project, during a meeting to be scheduled on Thursday. The plan is also known as waste-to-energy because it would produce electricity. The project would be a joint effort with Carroll County and could cost as much as $615 million to build, between the two counties. Commissioners John L. Thompson Jr. and David Gray, both Republicans, said Tuesday they would join Jenkins to move the project forward. "My position remains that is the least undesirable of many undesirable methods of getting rid of the county's unrecycleable trash," Thompson said. Commissioners Kai Hagen and Jan Gardner, both Democrats, plan to oppose the project. Jenkins decided he wanted to lift the suspension after meeting with officials in York, Pa., and Baltimore on planned expansions at their waste-to-energy plants. He had hoped Frederick could purchase space in those plants, instead of continuing to haul trash to a landfill in Virginia. His last meeting with those officials was on Friday, and he was informed both expansion projects are on hold. "We can't be waiting around for everybody else to make a decision," Jenkins said. "That puts us in a pretty bad place." Hagen, the only commissioner strongly opposed to any incinerator, criticized Jenkins for not waiting for a staff review of alternatives. That review was expected in the next couple of months. Hagen said any alternative would be less risky than going ahead with an oversized, overpriced, environmentally unsound incinerator. "It's hard to understand why he would not be willing to wait that long," Hagen said. "But there's no rules that say that a commissioner has to be more fully informed before they cast a vote, even a really important vote." Gardner, who also plans to vote against the project, has objections to the location. The site is near the Monocacy National Battlefield, and National Park Service officials have said the smokestack would be visually intrusive. The site is also small at 10 acres, Gardner said, and may not have enough room for truck queuing. She plans to make additional comments during the future meeting. Jenkins said that he would not be interested in a new site because it would delay the process by forcing the county to seek bids again. Gray will likely propose conditions for the project to mitigate affects on Monocacy, such as shortening the smokestack or requiring a brick veneer. "If we're going to do this, let's do it as best we can so it has minimal impact on people," he said.