NEW ULM — Brown County commissioners unanimously approved a two-year landfill operating contract with Mathiowetz Enterprises, Inc. Tuesday.

The proposal for $499,115, a 4% increase over the 2023 contract and a 3.8% hike for 2025 at $518,115, was approved on a motion by Commissioner Tony Berg, seconded by Scott Windschitl.

In a Feb. 8 letter to the Brown County Solid Waste Officer, Mathiowetz Enterprises, Inc. President Julie K. Anderson wrote that the trend on equipment parts and purchases in 2023 stabilized and inflation seems to have hit 5%, while fuel stabilized.

“We jointly added security cameras and signage to the site that now makes the customer experience as smooth and safe as possible. We feel the site is well set up,” Anderson wrote.

“We have shared the potential site issue that we have more water to handle off site in 2024 due to the loss of the spray field of the MPCA permit,” she added.

“We remain committed to assisting with this deficit and recommended significant efforts toward discussions with local municipalities that may have a pond that can take effluent that contains PFAS (long-lasting chemicals that break down very slowly over time, some of which may be linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals),” Anderson wrote.

She added that Mathiowetz Enterprises is available to haul the water (after doing some pre-planning) to sites but lack the ability to enter these discussions without Brown County in the planning stage — “so we feel this needs some County attention soon.”

Anderson wrote that all intermittent (landfill) haulers under $1,000 have been encouraged to use credit card payment as an option.

“This (credit card) use has increased significantly in 2023. We are notifying the larger accounts that if they want to use a credit card, they can but over $1,000 will incur the card fee,” she added.

Anderson wrote that Mathiowetz Enterprises worked all the 2023 season with the new scale and site operator setup.

“At this time, we feel the site is right-sized at 2.75 employees that were put in place in late 2022,” she added. “Employee pay, benefits and retention continue an upward trajectory. That is where part of our price escalation request will go. Insurance has still seen 6.5% increases in both benefits and liability.”