Until he can get his sand-filtered septic systems in full operation, Mahlon Yoder will be able to use the City of Kalona’s treatment lagoons for his waste disposal. Yoder, an old order Amishman, hopes to have a modest custom meat butchering facility at his rural Kalona farm operating by mid-January.

Because the farm is within Kalona’s two-mile radius, the city has been apprised of the plan since its announced inception in 1998. Monday, the council approved letting Yoder use city facilities until August 1.

Indications are that Yoder’s treatment facilities, for handling waste products from the butchering, will be ready in either June or July.

The city set a fee of $68.40 for each time Yoder has to clean his holding tanks and use the treatment lagoons for disposal.

He also will have to use a licensed waste disposal handler, council members noted.

Approval was by a four to one vote with councilman Dave Droz voting no.

Yoder told the council Monday that he will be doing “only custom work,” that there will be no resale. As a result, the inspection requirements are different.

When he initially started the project, in response to the sale of the Kalona Locker and its owners subsequent decision to discontinue custom butchering, Yoder has envisioned a set of treatment lagoons.

However, since then his engineer has told him that the four septic tanks, with filters on each tank, is what the DNR wants.

Yoder told the council that he will process only 10 hogs and five beef per week, explaining that he expects there will be more custom butchering orders than he can handle. As a result, he has no plans for any resale operation. He also said that he has a building at his farm and “we are now hooking up the freezer and cooler.”

City Administrator Doug Morgan noted that the DNR has “pretty stringent rules.”

In other business, the council:

•set 7 p.m., December 20 for a public hearing about the land sale to Lynn Helmuth (Kalona Auto) and Dwight Bender (formerly Dwight’s Oil Company) that will resolve an encroachment on city land. Morgan said the city reached an agreement that “both will pay $1,400 for their land.” The city also will pay for easements on the land.

•learned that the Washington Sheriff’s Department has hired two new officers: William Fiordelise of Kalona, formerly a state trooper in the State of Maryland, and Eric Weber, a former police officer in Keokuk County.

•learned there had been vandalism of some Christmas lights and that the youth responsible had been caught.