Public Works Director Jesse Freihammer discusses the center’s future and its possible shutdown

By Cecilia Wallace – Environmental Reporter

Roseville officials are considering the potential closure of the city’s leaf recycling center due to concerns over maintenance costs, illegal dumping and overlapping services with Ramsey County facilities.

The Roseville leaf recycling center opened in 1971 on the east side of Dale Street solely for leaf compost. Roseville has remained the only Ramsey County city to maintain such a site since.

The long-standing site has navigated various issues throughout its history, but in recent years has seen an increase in illegal dumping of items like wood debris and garbage.

“We’ve always had issues with illegal dumping, but it seems to have really increased the last few years,” Roseville Public Works Director Jesse Freihammer said. “I think we’ve had more people finding out about our site, which is less regulated, which is why we’ve seen [the dumping] coming to ours. And kind of once the word spreads, people figure it out.”

This, in tandem with the high cost to run the facility, has prompted the city to explore the site’s closure.

“There’s a lot of staff time involved, and certainly there’s a cost component to manage it, and when Roseville residents are also paying for the Ramsey County sites, it’s truly a duplicative service,” Freihammer said. “So why are we trying to do the same thing the County does?”

The Public Works Commission has explored options to keep the facility open, like staffing or security cameras, but these models would increase cost, according to Freihammer.

Currently, the center has an employee who “ends up almost being a third of an employee,” Freihammer said, as they only have to turn the compost about nine times a year. A full-time employee’s role would primarily be compost monitoring.

The council has discussed the center’s potential closure at two meetings and has received a fair amount of feedback.

“The majority of the residents that we’ve heard correspondence from or who have testified to council have been supportive of keeping the leaf site open,” Freihammer said. “A lot of it is because of proximity, and they like the location and the use.”

For those wanting to keep the site open, the council will not make its decision until next year, and future data will have a play in the verdict.

“The vehicle gate is open for the fall leaf collection this year,” Freihammer said. “We’re collecting additional data on who’s using it and how much it’s being used to try to get more data for council, and then we’ll certainly provide that, as well as some additional information on cost to replace equipment, as well as maybe options with Ramsey County, so we can present that to council when they take that up next year.”

If a closure ensues, Freihammer said the center would be utilized for some of the city’s tree management..

“Our costs to manage trees have gone up significantly since Ramsey County no longer allows us to bring city-created tree waste to the Ramsey County yard waste sites,” he said. “So basically, we either have to pay to dispose of it, or we prefer to chip it, but sometimes we don’t have a spot to collect debris that would allow us to stack wood debris there and ship it when it’s more convenient or more cost-effective for us.”

This decision is a multi-faceted one, and a choice the council will make using both data and residents’ feedback.

“It’s still under consideration, and if residents certainly have feedback, they can reach out to the council,” Freihammer said. “It’ll be something that’ll be brought up next year. But it’s like I said, it is a duplicate of service, so the service is still there.”

Cecilia Wallace can be reached at celiadw016@gmail.com.