by Dave DeMars
news@thenewsleaders.com
In mid-summer, the dry dust of the roadway floats over the Sauk Rapids compost site. In early spring and late fall, the rains turn the site into a mud hole that at times could challenge a four-wheeler. And in the heat of summer, the smell is often remarked on by newcomers to the site.
But the Sauk Rapids compost site plays an important role in keeping the city livable and free of organic debris, and in return providing some rich black material to help in keeping yards looking green.
Back in the early 1970s, the environmental movement took root. Much of the focus was on water and air pollution, and it still is. But part of the movement focused on caring for the land, and restoring and replenishing what we had taken for granted for too long.
Out of that part of the movement came the idea of composting. Composting is simply taking vegetative waste, perhaps adding a little water, turning the waste over and letting nature change the waste into a valuable soil amendment.
Thanks to the environmental movement, many cities started their own composting program. Sauk Rapids was one of them and established what today is a 45-acre site of which about 12 acres are used for the compost operation.
Starting in April until late November, the site is open every Wednesday (noon to 7 p.m.) and Saturday (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.). Special operation times are listed on the city’s website.
Vernon Reinert, along with Bob Weyer and Lawrence Gerards, spend their time managing the site and directing visitors and users of the site to the appropriate areas. Reinert is in his second year as a caretaker of the site and so far he likes the job just fine.
“It’s not strenuous work. It’s something a retired guy can handle,” Reinert said with a chuckle.
In the early spring, when the grass starts to green up and the last snow disappears, the public will start raking leftover leaves from their yards, fertilizing and getting the first cut of the season done. That is the start of the busy season. The milder the winter, the greater the call to open the site.
“When people start getting excited about cleaning yards, and Pete Eickhoff (director of Public Works) starts getting phone calls, ‘When are you going to open it? When are you going to open it?’ well then he says, maybe we should open it,” Reinert said.
A typical day at the site consists of some sitting, a little talking, and a lot of waving and pointing to where waste material should be dumped. Between customers, Reinert likes to read or keep busy sweeping out the shack used by the monitors.
“Next week, I think I’ll bring my weed whacker with me and get rid of those thistles and weeds in the middle of the drive by the table,” Reinert said.
Occasionally, a newcomer will stop by the tin shack on site that serves as protection from the elements for site monitors to purchase a compost site sticker to put on their windshield allowing them to use the site. The sticker costs $25 for the season.
“Last Wednesday, I had 268 customers,” Reinert said after consulting his clipboard for the count. “That was kind of unusual to have that many on a Wednesday afternoon. That is more typical of a Saturday. That was a good day for a Wednesday.”
Reinert keeps a sharp eye on the customers that come through the gate. He said, you have to make sure they unload in the right area. Grass clippings go on the windrows to the north of the hut while brush goes to the huge pile of tree limbs and trimmings to the west.
Some customers bring whole trees to drop off at the site. That’s OK, but the site doesn’t take construction lumber or other construction debris. Once a year or so, an outside company comes, and chips and grinds up all the brush, then takes it to an electrical plant where it is burned up and produces electricity.
“It’s kind of a win-win situation,” Reinert said.
Usually the logs and chunks of cord wood don’t last too long, Reinert explained. Someone will drop it off, and another person looking for some campfire wood will come and pick it up. There are a few guys who bring their chainsaws right to the site. The same holds true for landscape rock and such. While technically the site doesn’t take landscape material, Reinert says it never lasts very long.
When people decide to change their landscaping, they often have sod and black dirt they don’t want. That all goes in the black dirt pile. Many times someone will come looking for some sod. If not, it will decompose for a year, and next year will be processed with the rest of the leaf and grass compost.
Composting at the site usually takes about four years from beginning to the finished black dirt product. Nothing is mixed into the organic material. It’s simply turned and pushed back into larger piles as it decomposes.
Eventually a batch is deemed ready, and is screened and piled in back of the steel monitor’s hut. People are free to come and load as much or little of it as they wish and take it away – no charge. It’s wonderful for filling in low spots and garden beds.
A pickup truck pulling a large trailer of brush pulled up in front of the monitor station. Reinert went out to inspect the load and talk to the driver, then directed him to the brush pile to the west of the monitor station.
That’s one of the things we have to watch for, Reinert said. Mixing rock and brush isn’t good when they come to process and grind the brush for the electrical plant. That “stuff” has to be separated. “Stuff” consists of not only rocks but flower pots and a variety of other yard ornaments and things.
In the spring, the compost site is also the site of “Clean Sweep Days” where Sauk Rapids residents and Sauk Rapids Township and some areas of Minden Township are encouraged to clean up their properties. Large dumpsters are set about the site to handle different types of refuse. For a small fee, people can bring in just about any kind of junk and stuff sitting in their basements, garages and yards. Appliances, refrigerators, mattresses, springs, scrap iron, lawn mowers, bicycles – all are disposed of.
“Something like a lawn mower, if it looks like it might have some value to it, we’ll set it off to the side,” Reinert said. “Somebody will come along and take it home.”
Vernon Reinert, one of the caretakers at the Sauk Rapids compost site, directs a customer toward a site where he can unload the twigs and branches from his yard.
Vernon Reinert exits the steel monitor’s shed to direct a new customer to the proper site. Reinert spends about two days per week helping to maintain the compost site so the process of making black soil can proceed smoothly.
A pile of black dirt that has been processed and screened awaits anyone in need of soil for a garden or to do a little lawn patching. The dirt is free for the taking for Sauk Rapids residents.
A mixed load of brush and grass clippings heads first toward the windrow grass clipping compost and then to the brush pile left of where this photo was taken. Vernon Reinert, compost caretaker, said it was important to not mix the brush and grass clippings since the grass clippings break down faster and are made into rich black soil.
