Overlook would transform peak of Mount Trashmore

CEDAR RAPIDS - Long discussed plans to open up one of the best vantage points in Cedar Rapids to the public may soon come to fruition.

Officials with the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency have announced plans for an overlook landing atop the old landfill dubbed Mount Trashmore, 2250 A St. SW. The peak of Mount Trashmore offers views of downtown Cedar Rapids, industry, the river, timberlands and the miles of landscape that makes up the city.

The hope is it becomes a place more people can come and enjoy, said Joe Horaney, a spokesman for the Solid Waste Agency.

'We decided we definitely wanted the overlook to get done,” Horaney said. 'We have all these different events ... and the one thing everyone comments on, they get up there and say this is really incredible.”

Mount Trashmore stands at 208 feet.

The estimated $743,000 project is to include construction of a gazebo, fencing, stone pillars, landscaping, and relocating a fueling island near the scale house at ground level to another spot on site, he said. A public hearing has been set for 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 20, at the Jean Oxley Linn County Public Service Center, Room 3AB, 935 Second St. SW.

Written comments can be made to Karmin McShane, executive director of the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency, 1954 County Home Road, Marion, Iowa, 52302 or by calling (319) 377-5290.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring and be complete by the fall, Horaney said.

Access by bike, foot or car would only be allowed during hours of operation, and visitors would need to stop at the scale house to sign-in and out.

The work is the first phase of a larger plan to overhaul the landfill site, which would remain active for composting, recycling and yard waste.

Initial plans also called for recreation trails, demolishing one of the old buildings on site, a new entrance area, new scales and technical work on gas wells, in addition to the aesthetic feature on top of the hill, said Ralph Russell, chairman of the Solid Waste Agency's board of directors.

The larger project was approved for bid in August, but the lowest of three submitted bids was $3.8 million, which was more than the $2 million estimate. As a result, the board rejected the bids and split the work into multiple phases.

'We scaled back to reduce what is being done in phase one,” Russell said.

Getting the public portion complete and available was the priority.

'You have a fantastic view of our city,” Russell said. 'It's a higher view of our city, 360 degrees around once you are on top of it. It's a wonderful view looking right down the river to the downtown area and May's Island.”

What has become Mount Trashmore opened in 1965 along the Cedar River in what had been the Otis Quarry. It had closed for good on July 31, 2006, leaving the Solid Waste Agency with just one landfill, Site 2 at County Home Road and Highway 13. However, the agency received special permission to reopen Site 1 when Cedar Rapids needed a nearby place to bury debris from the flood of 2008. Some 430,000 tons of flood debris went into Site 1, adding 32 to 34 feet to the landfill height, before it closed for good in late 2012.

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com