Children Create And Devour Incredible, Edible Landfills At Holland Library
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Adam Monticure, Isabella Hall, Sarah Ellwood and Maegan Dokurno all agree that garbage tastes good – at least the kind they created at the Holland Branch Library.
The youth attended a class about landfills at the library last week, and learned what really happens to garbage while making an incredible, edible landfill.
“What is a landfill?” asked Melinda Lesniewicz, an education specialist from Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful, showing photos of the Hoffman Road landfill. Toledo’s 33 garbage trucks deliver two loads a day there in the summertime.
A landfill starts with a 50-foot-deep hole with a solid liner – to prevent waste from seeping into the ground water. Instead of a hole with a liner, the children started their landfills with a chocolate graham cracker crust.
Red licorice served as the “steel pipes” that drain out the leachate – liquid that comes from the garbage. After laying down their “pipes,” children crushed graham crackers to serve as the rocks and sand that cover up the pipes to protect them from leachate.
The garbage is hauled to the landfill, where a bulldozer spreads it into a thin layer of smaller pieces.
Lesniewicz poured on vanilla pudding to represent garbage and a layer of chocolate pudding for dirt. The kids took turns spreading garbage with a spatula.
Each layer of garbage is covered with six inches of dirt each day, to keep the garbage in place and to ward off seagulls and rodents.
Larger refuse items, such as appliances and furniture, are scheduled for extra pickup, but still end up in the landfill – these were represented by M&Ms. After a few more layers of garbage and dirt, licorice pipes were stuck into the muck.
“These pipes release the gasses that build up,” Lesniewicz said. Otherwise, the result could be an explosion.
When finished, the children sprinkled green sugar for grass. Many landfills end up as recreational areas or golf courses, Lesniewicz said.
“Garbage doesn’t just magically disappear from your curb every week, does it?” Lesniewicz asked.
“No!” the children shouted.
“What happens to it?”
Most children guessed that it decays. But one boy said, “Nothing.”
“You are correct,” Lesniewicz told him. “It’s there pretty much forever. When this is all filled up, where will we put the garbage?”
Fortunately, every hand went up when Lesniewicz asked who recycles. The children were also thrilled to get change pouches and bookmarks made from recycled materials.
“I had no idea it would be topped off with more dirt and more dirt,” Sarah said of landfills.
“I didn’t know they piled it 90 feet high,” Maegan said.
Isabella was surprised to hear that garbage gets shipped elsewhere.
Although talking of garbage turned a few stomachs, it didn’t prevent the children from finding out whether their landfills were truly edible. And judging from the empty bowls, they were delicious.
Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful is a nonprofit organization that promotes litter prevention and recycling through education and awareness programs.
Holland Council Accepts Bids For New Albon Lodge
BY KELLY J. KACZALA — MIRROR REPORTER
Holland Village Council accepted bids for construction of the Max Albon Lodge in Strawberry Acres Park at its April 15 meeting.
Poggemyer Design Group, the village’s engineer, met with the various contractors, according to council member Dale Prentice, chair of the building committee.
Council accepted the general, mechanical, electrical and three alternate bids for the lodge.
The general contracting bid went to Midwest Contracting for $776,559. Plumbing, fire protection and HVAC systems went to Mondo Mechanical for $182,894, and electrical went to Regent Electric for $141,000.
Alternate bids were also approved, including $9,384 for the entrance drive reconstruction; $6,842 for the addition of parking spaces in two locations, for a total of eight parking spaces; and $3,890 for an underground electric primary from Clarion Avenue to the west side of the lodge.
The building committee did not recommend alternates for stamping of the asphalt under the canopy of the new lodge, for $25,329, and a standing seam metal roof, which ranged in price from $45,000 to $125,000, Prentice said.
Council accepted rather than approved the bids as a legal matter since monies for the project are not yet available, according to Lyn Krasula, the clerk treasurer.
“If cash is not actually available, we can’t approve a contract,” Krasula said. “This project was originally scheduled for the end of the year. We moved it up to the beginning of the year. This money comes into play by the collection of the income tax revenue. That money has not yet been collected. Between April and May, this money is in the process of being collected. I’m estimating that it should be available by mid-May.”
The bids are good for up to 60 days.
The village last year was awarded over $541,000 out of the state capital improvement budget for a new lodge in the park. Family gatherings, weddings, reunions and activities for area seniors are among the uses planned for the facility.
Also at the meeting, council members:
• Approved the purchase of two bikes for $1,840 for the police department’s bike patrol.
The police department received a state grant for overtime enforcement, including the purchase of two bikes to supplement the village’s bike patrol, said Police Chief Robert Reed.
The village is responsible for a 25 percent match, or $460, of the cost, but has to front the money to purchase the bikes.
“This will allow us to put four bikes on the road for the Strawberry Festival parade, Freedom Celebration and Party in the Park,” Reed said.
• Heard from administrator Harry Barlos about preparing n 2008 Community Devel-opment Block Grant for restroom facilities and a maintenance building in Strawberry Acres Park. The deadline to submit the application is May 5.
“We will file this CDBG grant request for an unspecified amount of money, since we don’t know exactly what the two buildings will cost,” Barlos said. “The village will request the maximum amount. I believe there will be six grants that will be awarded this year. I firmly believe these two will fit the profile of the CDBG grants.”
• Heard from Barlos that the McCord Road railroad crossing did not meet qualifications to be designated a railroad quiet zone.
In June 2006, a federal law was passed that allows communities to qualify for quiet zones if they meet certain requirements. Trains are not required to sound horns as they approach railroad crossings in a designated quiet zone. The zones would reduce the noise pollution for nearby neighborhoods.
• Heard that the village will have to determine if enough funding is available for the Dunn Drive phase 2 project. The village has applied for a Small Governments grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission to partially fund the project.
The grant would require the project to be completed by July 2010 and the village to pay $208,000 of the $474,000 project.
Mayor Mike Yunker said the village would have to determine if funding would be available.
A decision was expected by the following day. The village would have to reapply to Small Governments if that fell through, and there would be a chance the project would not receive grant funding the following year.
The application for Dunn Drive phase 2 has already received approval from the District Integrating Com-mittee of Lucas County, which recommended approval to Small Govern-ments.
Plans call for Dunn Drive to be completely reconstructed, including a new roadway, curbs, gutters, storm sewers, sidewalks and new waterlines.
These are just a couple of articles that ran in The Mirror Newspaper.
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