6.2 EDSR 10-15-2018
The Elk River Vision
A welcoming community with revolutionary and spirited resourcefulness, exceptional
service, and community engagement that encourages and inspires prosperity
Request for Action
To
Economic Development Authority
Item Number
6.2
Agenda Section
General Business
Meeting Date
October 15, 2018
Prepared by
Amanda Othoudt, EDD
Item Description
Director’s Report
Reviewed by
Cal Portner, City Administrator
Reviewed by
Action Requested
Information presented for discussion to keep the EDA updated on development activity.
Background/Discussion
BUSINESS VISITS
BR&E visits were completed with 14 local businesses, 5 more are scheduled. Please RSVP if you are able
to attend.
MISCELLANEOUS
Inquiries
Staff continues to receive inquiries seeking existing industrial space and new industrial development and
inquiries on the data center site. In anticipation of the upcoming 169 Redefine Project, more and more
inquiries are coming through my office for property not currently listed for sale along the 169 Corridor.
Marketing Materials
Staff is working on updating our Targeted Industry marketing materials, and our community guide.
GRE Waste to Energy Plant Closing
The Star Tribune and the Star News both published articles on the pending closure. The plant generates
$1,869,920 in total annual tax revenue, of which, $461,793 is city tax revenue. Although we are actively
marketing the property, it will be important for the EDA and Council to discuss the overall tax impact.
Elk River’s Realtor Day Fall Forum
Reminder, our annual Elk River Realtor Day Fall Forum is scheduled for 8 a.m. to noon, on Nov. 28.
This year, we are collaborating with the St. Paul Association of Realtors and MNCAR. There will be a
variety of topics and an overview of our local economy. Plan to attend, lunch will be provided.
Revolving Loan Fund Balance Reports
At the request of commission, a copy of the Revolving Loan Fund report is attached.
Financial Impact
N/A
Attachments
Revolving Loan Fund Report
Star Tribune Article (September 30, 2018)
ELK RIVER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
MICRO LOANS
Current Current 10/12/18
Loan Loan Interest Term Monthly Principal
Borrower Date Amount Rate (Months)Payment Outstanding Current
Die Concepts 6/3/2016 $185,200 2.00%60 $936.90 $168,490.20 Y
Heritage Millwork 12/22/2016 $100,000 3.00%60 $965.61 $84,665.52 Y
Patriot Converting 5/5/2016 $200,000 3.00%60 $3,593.74 $106,986.25 Y
Ralphies#1 9/10/2013 $74,999 3.00%120 $724.20 $39,235.59 Y
Ralphies#2 8/28/2018 $19,175 3.00%60 $343.65 $19,175.00
TOTAL MICRO LOANS $399,377.56 Micro Loan Fund 240
Distinctive Iron 3/3/2015 $126,000 2.03%60 $874.72 $97,219.37 Y
Scott Morrell LLC 8/6/2015 $200,000 2.00%60 $1,011.77 173,361.12 Y
Orluck 7/17/2018 $200,000 3.00%84 $2,642.66 195,709.32 Y
$466,289.81 DEED Jobs Incentive Loan Fund 242
Fund Cash Balances 10/12/18:
Micro Loan Fund - 240 $791,181.03
State DEED Jobs Incentive - 242 $39,623.60
10/10/2018 Closure of burner could send Twin Cities trash back to the dump - StarTribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/burner-s-closure-could-send-twin-cities-trash-back-to-the-dump/494749151/1/3
NORTH METRO
Closure of burner could send Twin Cities
trash back to the dump
250K tons of waste, including recyclables, would be diverted to
landfills if Elk River incinerator closes.
By Eric Roper (http://www.startribune.com/eric-roper/62906482/) Star Tribune
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 — 10:50PM
A roaring fire that consumes Twin Cities trash every year may soon be extinguished,
sending mountains of extra waste into the metro area’s landfills.
Great River Energy (GRE) says it will close its Elk River waste-to-energy operation if no
one steps forward to buy it by this fall. The two likeliest bidders — Anoka County and
Hennepin County — aren’t interested. If the incinerator
(https://youtu.be/0IFoQnUVV1s?t=4m37s) and metal recovery facility
(https://youtu.be/0IFoQnUVV1s?t=2m44s) close, more than 250,000 tons of extra trash
will likely head instead to the region’s landfills.
Burying more municipal trash is the opposite of what state environmental officials want
(http://www.startribune.com/mpca-pushes-to-keep-twin-cities-trash-burning-at-
capacity/411420465/) — they prioritize burning refuse that isn’t recycled or composted.
Garbage incineration comes with its own pollution concerns, but state regulators say
Minnesota’s burners meet rigorous federal pollution standards while extracting
recyclables and energy that are otherwise lost.
Plus, they argue, tossing trash in the dump doesn’t make it go away.
“The land that’s going to be taken up by landfilling … that’s going to be a legacy we’re
going to leave to our grandchildren,” said Sig Scheurle, planning director with the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
The other primary trash incinerators that
serve the metro area are already operating at
capacity. Twin Cities trash that doesn’t get
burned ends up mainly at four landfills in
Elk River, Burnsville, Inver Grove Heights
and Glencoe. They took in a million cubic
yards of compacted municipal trash last
year, enough to fill the IDS Center tower
about 1.5 times
(http://www.startribune.com/how-much-
garbage-is-that/493999731/) , according to a
Star Tribune analysis of MPCA data.
If Great River Energy shuts down its burner,
state regulators expect the four landfills to
reach their permitted capacity in just over six
years — more than two years earlier than
anticipated — since haulers will have few
other alternatives. Landfills must ask the
state for additional allowed space, and two
have already indicated they will.
“As much as anybody, I would love to see the
plant stay in operation and do the
environmentally responsible thing and avoid
landfills,” Anoka County Commissioner Jim
Kordiak said at a recent board discussion.
“But there are too many pitfalls.”
Despite the state’s emphasis on incineration vs. landfilling, the economics of GRE’s
trash-to-energy project have become unsustainable. Anoka County helped create the
facility in the 1980s and, along with two other counties, subsidized the incinerator for
years so it could compete with cheaper landfills.
B R I A N P E T E R S O N – STA R T R I B U N E(http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/1538358869_08+100683
Waste Management's Burnsville land ll
10/10/2018 Closure of burner could send Twin Cities trash back to the dump - StarTribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/burner-s-closure-could-send-twin-cities-trash-back-to-the-dump/494749151/2/3
Those subsidies have disappeared, and wholesale electricity prices are low. Now the
burner can’t earn enough from the electricity it generates or attract enough garbage from
haulers to stay viable, said Tim Steinbeck, GRE’s director of resource recovery. Great
River Energy, which has owned the facility since 2010, is a cooperative energy company
with member owners.
“We’re hoping others step up and want to keep it going,” Steinbeck said, adding that it
will close early next year without a buyer. He said some private parties have expressed
interest but declined to say who they were.
County commissioners in Anoka and Hennepin have been reluctant to take on a project
that GRE had trouble keeping afloat.
“For Hennepin County it’s not economical to step up and try and keep this facility going
that the private sector apparently could not keep going,” said Hennepin County Board
Chairwoman Jan Callison. The county’s own trash burner, in Minneapolis’ North Loop,
runs at capacity.
The county is pursuing some of the most aggressive efforts in the state to steer
recyclables and organics out of the trash, and Callison said it aims to keep trash out of
landfills until all other options have been exhausted.
“It’s going to be a little bit harder for us to achieve that without having GRE as a
resource,” Callison said.
About half of the seven-county metro’s waste was recycled or composted last year,
according to MPCA data. Another 23 percent was landfilled
(http://www.startribune.com/to-bury-or-burn-why-we-re-landfilling-more-than-
before/412303123/) and 28 percent was burned.
In its most recent plan for managing (https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/w-
sw7-21.pdf) the metro area’s garbage, completed last year, the MPCA aimed to reduce
landfilling to just 2 percent by 2020.
“It’s not just that we’re going backwards in terms of meeting the goals to landfill less
waste,” Scheurle said. “We’re also losing the recovery of metals and electricity that we
derive from the waste.”
Yet burning garbage has its own critics, due to pollutants like nitrogen oxides and sulfur
dioxide that the plants release into the air.
“We know that has very real health consequences,” said Margaret Levin, executive
director of the Sierra Club North Star Chapter. “So from a public health perspective,
there are serious concerns both with combustion of solid waste and with landfilling.”
State officials recently became more aggressive about diverting trash from metro
landfills. The MPCA began enforcing for the first time () a 1980s-era law that bars
landfilling metro trash that could be incinerated. It fined local landfills, citing the
unused capacity at GRE’s burner in Elk River.
Metro landfills — owned by corporate giants Waste Management and Republic Services
— sued to block the effort (http://www.startribune.com/trash-haulers-sue-state-over-
push-to-burn-more-garbage/432561183/) . In April, a district judge agreed with their
arguments that the MPCA had improperly punished landfills. An appeal is pending.
State officials will likely have to decide in the coming years whether to grant additional
landfill space for municipal trash.
Pine Bend landfill in Inver Grove Heights recently won city consent
(https://www.ci.inver-grove-heights.mn.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02262018-
68) to amass additional trash on a steeper slope, which will likely need state approvals.
And Waste Management has told the MPCA it intends to seek more space at its
Burnsville landfill.
“That has been Waste Management’s business plan for a long time,” said company
spokeswoman Julie Ketchum. “It has nothing to do with the situation at GRE.”
Burnsville will have a meeting about the plan Oct. 15.
10/10/2018 Closure of burner could send Twin Cities trash back to the dump - StarTribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/burner-s-closure-could-send-twin-cities-trash-back-to-the-dump/494749151/3/3
Eric Roper is a metro reporter covering urban affairs in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Since
joining the Star Tribune in 2009, he has covered the city of Minneapolis, the state Legislature and
Congress for the paper.
eric.roper@startribune.com 612-673-1732 StribRoper