Seward residents and others who regularly take yard waste to the city compost pile will need to find other options.
The Seward City Council on March 17 voted to limit what can be dropped off at the burn pile to wood, brush and storm debris, and to eliminate the compost pile where grass, leaves and other yard and garden debris could be left.
They also clarified the burn pile’s schedule to be open each Saturday from April to October, but to be accessible only on select Saturdays from November to March. Fees remain the same and those who paid to have key-access to the area in 2026 may seek refunds if the changes affect them.
The compost pile issue involves community safety and convenience.
City Administrator Greg Butcher said the sheer size of the compost pile grew last year as residents and commercial mowers and landscapers dumped yard waste, which creates a situation where the heat generated by that waste can and sometimes does lead to self-combustion.
“There is an extreme amount of heat,” Butcher said.
To safely manage that amount of compost, the city would need to windrow the compost to keep it aerated, but it has neither the space nor the staff to do so.
The placement and size of the burn pile area, which is bordered by a creek, railroad tracks, and farm fields, has advantages for monitoring entry and exit, but puts the compost pile in too close a proximity to the burn pile, Butcher said.
When the wood pile is burned, there is a substantial amount of ash in the air that could easily ignite the compost pile. The city pays to have the ash from the burn pile removed from the site.
Another fire hazard comes from the proximity of the railroad tracks. Sparks generated by train traffic can ignite fires in nearby grasses, and if that spread to the compost pile the situation could quickly be a problem.
Mayor Josh Eickmeier said the city added the compost pile in 2013 to provide residents a place to take their yard waste, which cannot be burned in town.
But a compost pile like the city’s “is on its own timeline” to combust, he said.
Spreading fire a danger
In addition to the stench and the smoke the pile creates when it catches fire, the threat of wildfires in Nebraska is high and the frequency of fire calls to the site increases demand on the Seward Volunteer Fire Department.
Fire Chief Tayler Mifflin told the council fire crews were called the compost pile 15 times in the past two years, but the number does not accurately reflect the number of times fires have erupted. The department does not go out unless flames reach a certain height, and some calls reflect the need to return to the site a second time the same day.
The department attempts to break the pile down and douse the yard waste, but it is difficult to break apart and unsteady to walk on as they work to do it.
“When we are working on top of it, trying to put it out,” he said, it is not uncommon to look back and see “ the fire literally where we just were is flaming.”
High winds that trigger red flag warnings can be 50 to 60 miles an hour and increase the danger of bigger fires and the possibility that a fire could jump the highway, Mifflin said.
It is possible, Mifflin said, that fires are smoldering in the debris as it is being dropped off by big trucks.
“It is already hot,” he said.
There is no hydrant in the area so the department has to make multiple trips with tanker trucks.
Councilmember John Singleton has long been involved with the fire department.
“When we let commercial (users) in there, that is when we lost control of it,” he said.
Still, he was reluctant to completely end the compost option.
“I don’t want to just say we are done with this because we are going to get a lot of backlash from the taxpayers,” Singleton said.
Abbey Rumery-Feulner, who owns Bel-Con Refuse with her husband, Michael Feulner, told the council their company has 335 yard-waste pickup stops in the Seward area.
To take the yard waste to landfills would increase their and other refuse companies’ costs, which in turn affects consumers. She said the yard waste pick-up is a service their company provides, but it is not making money for the company.
She said she sees both sides of the issue because she has experienced the smoke and smell when working at Rumery Lawn and Landscape’s store for her father.
Illegal dumping
also an issue
Seward County Commissioner Darrell Zabrocki, who represents Seward’s District 2 on the board, addressed the council during the public hearing, saying as a citizen he regularly drops yard waste at the site.
But he said the change will also cause problems for the county.
“You are going to create an issue of unintended consequences here,” he said. “That’s going to come out into the county.”
People who cannot bring their yard waste to the compost pile may instead dump it in ditches around the county causing issues for county road maintenance, storm drainage and law enforcement.
The city experiences some of that when the site is closed – as well as items that are not eligible for either the burn pile or composting being dumped on the road that leads up to the burn pile entry, which is not city owned.
Jerry Rumery, who owns Rumery Lawn and Landscape near the burn pile, owns the road and said he has had a “handshake agreement” with the city to allow use of the road to access the site.
He recognizes the good intent behind having a compost drop-off point, but also noted that the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment bans burning grass, even when the fire is unintentional.
“My concern is the smoke when that grass catches on fire,” he said, noting visibility becomes difficult and the smoke creates a health hazard.
“What if that thing would jump the corn field?” he said. “Are we going to be able to stop it?”
Few alternatives offered
Eickmeier and Butcher both noted that the city does not have a better property in its control to move the compost operation.
Butcher said a 2023 survey showed that cities similar to Seward – Aurora, York, Crete, Beatrice and Milford – offer citizens composting options, but Crete puts theirs at a transfer station that is regularly monitored, and the others have theirs at their landfills, where it can also be used as a cover layer.
Seward contracts for landfill access, but does not control its own.
Singleton and Butcher noted that compost materials are a good source for the nitrogen people spread on their yards and fields.
Butcher said residents are encouraged to mulch their lawn clippings to lessen the need to haul debris away.
In other action on March 17, the Seward Council:
• Approved plans to seek bids for a metering manhole and sampling building project on Walker Road, which would help to automate wastewater testing and is related to the DARI LLC development in the Rail Campus. Phase 1 of this project would be completed in late July and the project fully operational in February.
• Awarded the $2.8 million contract for the industrial substation expansion project to Jolma Utilities LLC after the company was the only bidder on the project in a second round of bid-letting with about a $161,000 savings in project cost. While the DARI plant is a factor in this expansion, Butcher said the expansion was planned prior to the plans for DARI.
• Approved a Class C liquor license for Straight Path, LLC, doing business as Red Path Gallery & Tasting Room, and approved Amber Fiala as manager of that liquor license.
• Approved amendments to the employee handbook.
• Approved the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages at the electric department shop for the city employees’ annual awards banquet on April 17.
