The city will pay two companies to monitor and dispose of seepage from Bowling Greens closed landfills for the next year, the City Commission agreed Tuesday evening. McCoy & McCoy Laboratories of Madisonville will get $44,550 to monitor and test leachate, the often-contaminated liquid that seeps out of closed landfills, including the former Bowling Green landfills on Glen Lily Road and in Butler County. Evergreen Group of Louisville will be paid $25,150 to transport and dispose of the leachate, City Manager Chuck Coates said. Its really our responsibility to monitor closed landfill sites, Coates said. The contracts are awarded annually. Commissioners voted 4-0 for two municipal orders, with Commissioner Joe Denning absent for health reasons. The city used the Glen Lily Road landfill from 1975 to about 1979, Coates said. When it filled up, the city bought an abandoned strip mine in Butler County, which was used for the next several years. But as that one also filled up, higher state and federal environmental standards made it impractical to keep open. The Ohio County Fiscal Court opened a landfill about that time that would accept trash from other areas. Thats where Bowling Greens garbage goes now, Coates said. But Bowling Green is still responsible for containing and monitoring its garbage from years past, Coates said. A few years after it was closed, the city had to go back to the old landfills and cap them with plastic, then build water retention basins around them to meet higher environmental standards than were in place when the landfills were closed. That little project cost us $4 million, Coates said. It was financed through several years of a surcharge on garbage collection. Coates emphasized that, contrary to what some believed, the city met all environmental standards that were in force when the landfills closed. But as those have increased over the years, the city has been saddled with additional cleanup costs and environmental monitoring requirements. In other business, the commission:Approved paying Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott and May Engineers of Louisville an additional $31,300 for its inspection and repair design of the sinkhole on Dishman Lane. The firm has already been paid $75,000 for the work, but the sinkhole was deeper than expected and required more excavation to reach solid rock, City Engineer Jeff Lashlee said. The sinkhole opened last February, closing Dishman Lane between Nashville Road and Cave Mill Road. We are still on schedule to complete (this project) at the end of this month, assuming good weather continues, Lashlee said. Authorized spending $81,730 to replace grounds maintenance equipment for the Department of Parks and Recreation. Accepted the low bid for building a retention basin at the corner of Maple Lane and Boxwood Drive to deal with the flood-prone intersection. The $44,500 bid from Bastins Excavating of Central City is about one-third of the next lowest bid, only one-thirteenth of the highest, and well below Public Works estimate of expected cost, so commissioners were concerned as to whether Bastins would be able to do it for so little. But city Engineering Technician Dan Chaney said Bastins previous customers confirmed that he does good work inexpensively. Accepted $19,145 from the U.S. Department of Justice for an upgrade of the high-speed notification system for all members of the state emergency and anti-terrorism task force. The system can make 200 calls simultaneously, Bowling Green Police Officer Barry Pruitt told the commission.(The Department of Justice is) going to be paying for this upgrade, which well be able to use for many, many years, Pruitt said. Heard and approved the first reading of a rezoning request for 18.652 acres on the corner of Fitzgerald Industrial Drive and Great Escape Court as the proposed site for a relocation of Draughons Junior College, now on Airways Drive. Approved the promotion of Rebecca Burns to Communications Center Supervisor at the Bowling Green Police Department. Burns has been with the department since 1978, and has been an advanced communications center dispatcher since 2000.Gave an award to Bowling Green Fire Department Chief Gary Brown because there were no deaths from fire in Bowling Green in 2001.This is the third consecutive year that the Bowling Green Fire Department has received this recognition, Mayor Sandy Jones said. Presented Operation PRIDE beautification awards to George and Jane Morris for renovating their Victorian home on State Street, to landlord Kris Hamilton (for the second time) for his rental property on Chestnut Street, and to Dr. John Erskine for his office on U.S. 31-W By-Pass.