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Under a proposed agreement between Frederick and Carroll counties, Carroll garbage trucks would take a specific route to a proposed incinerator and deliver the county's trash at night when traffic is light.

"Carroll County traffic is going to be a concern for some folks," Frederick County Commissioner Charles A. Jenkins said. "I would like to have flexibility in the agreement that states when we would accept their trash."

At a commissioners' meeting Thursday, Michael G. Marschner, the director of Frederick County's division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management, said Frederick County could specify the time of day when Carroll can bring their trash. This would likely be at night, when traffic in the area is light.

"We've already talked about them coming at night," Commissioners President Jan H. Gardner said.

Mike Evans, Carroll County's director of public works, said his county expects to send 25 to 30 trucks a day.

The commissioners approved a resolution Thursday solidifying their commitment to build the incinerator, or "waste-to-energy facility" as some call it, because it burns trash to generate electricity. The incinerator will be built at the McKinney Industrial Center off Md. Route 85, south of the City of Frederick near the county's jail and wastewater treatment plant.

"Even though I did not agree with the site I am going to support the motion so we can move forward," Gardner (D) said. She opposes the McKinney site because of its proximity to the Monocacy National Battlefield.

Commissioner Kai J. Hagen (D), the only board member who opposes incineration, did not vote for the resolution.

Jenkins (R), Commissioner John "Lennie" Thompson Jr. (R) and Gardner voted in favor. Commissioner David P. Gray (R) was not at Thursday's meeting.

The incinerator is expected to cost $501 million, with Frederick paying $301 million and Carroll $200 million. Construction would follow a permitting process that could take more than a year.

Drafted by attorneys for Frederick County, the resolution outlines several conditions that commissioners want taken as they move ahead with the incinerator.

These conditions include:

-Building the incineration at the McKinney site.

-Removing — by Wheelabrator, the New Hampshire-based company that will build the incinerator — recyclables from the waste stream before and after incinerator.

-Asking Essroc Concrete Plant officials to tear down their unused smokestack, which is visible from the battlefield. The incinerator's smokestack will also be visible from the battlefield, so commissioners hope to make the view no worse than it is today.

-Enclosing air pollution controls in the incinerator building.

The four-page resolution also directs Gardner to send Carroll County commissioners an eight-page agreement or "memorandum of understanding" that outlines the building of an incinerator big enough to burn 1,500 tons of trash per day from Frederick and Carroll counties.

The agreement will be signed by both counties and the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, the independent state agency that helps counties dispose of trash. Frederick and Carroll counties are both members of the authority.

The agreement spells out the responsibilities of both counties and the authority.

Under the proposal, Wheelabrator will spend up to $3 million for design and permitting stages of the incinerator.

The agreement limits both counties' costs to $1.5 million should either county back out.

Carroll County earlier this month passed a similar resolution detailing the project and spelling out what would happen if either county backs out of the project.

E-mail Sherry Greenfield at sgreenfield@gazette.net.