Marion may hire mammoth mulcher

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Kermit the Frog wasn’t speaking of being environmentally friendly when he said it’s not easy being green. If he were, he may have instead said it’s not cheap.
That’s what Marion Town Council’s sanitation and equipment committees found this month as they investigated the cost of a chipper that could handle high volumes of tree limbs and brush collected throughout town.
A chipper up to the job would cost between $150,000 and $200,000.
In an effort to clear the air and become more green, the town of Marion this month looked into purchasing an industrial-size chipper to replace the practice of burning the brush pile near the water treatment plant. The twice yearly fires generate complaints about smoke.
Ordinarily the calls come from Wythe County, town officials said. But this fall an East Coast storm coinciding with the brush burning pushed the smoke back into Marion and even into Chilhowie.
That led to several local complaints and a look by the town into alternatives for disposing of the brush. Town Council member Gene Hendrick also noted the town’s interest in adopting “green” environmentally friendly practices and first suggested earlier this month the town mulch brush and limbs instead of burning them.
Hendrick had done a little research and found a company in High Point, N.C., that makes stationary rotary chippers. A rough estimate put the cost between $110,000 and $135,000, Hendrick said.
Hendrick acknowledged the expense is not in the budget. “I feel like there may be grants out there to help us do something like this,” he said. “It’s an expensive way out of burning brush, but I think it’s well worth it.”
The council voted unanimously to send the matter for joint consideration by the sanitation and equipment committees.
But a big chipper’s probable cost makes a match and a little kerosene all the more attractive, the town’s sanitation and equipment committees found.
Council member Buford Cregger said this week since the equipment is expensive and not budgeted, the town might burn more frequently than the usual twice a year. Smaller fires would burn hotter, and generate less smoke, he said.
Hendrick suggested the town could sell the chipped wood or give it to town residents. But the demand for that coarse mulch is low. Commercial tree services end up disposing of theirs, town officials said.
“If you chip, you have to get rid of the mulch if you can’t give it away,” Cregger said.
This week, Hendrick was back with another idea. He learned Don Medley would let the town use a portable chipper he owns at a cost of $300 an hour for its operation and hauling away chips.
“It takes stumps up to 20 inches,” Henrick said. “It will chip a tremendous amount in a day’s time.”
The council voted to have Hendrick contact Medley about whether the chipper, that requires moving by an over-the-road tractor, can be set up at the town’s brush pile, and how much of the debris it can chip in an eight-hour day.
And between now and budget preparation time later this winter, the town will investigate building the rent for the machine into the budget.
“That’s a lot cheaper than $150,000 to $200,000,” Council member Jim Gates said.

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