Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) discussed security and other issues at the Caesar Mountain and Marlinton Green Box sites Monday at its Special Meeting.
Member Dave Henderson complained that he was recently at the Caesar Mountain site and found that the green boxes there were filled with construction debris which appeared to come from demolition or renovations of houses, which is not authorized to be disposed of in green boxes. He speculated that most of this must have come from Greenbrier County or other distant areas because there just are not enough homes or businesses in the Hillsboro area to account for that amount of construction material. While he was there, Henderson said, a truck full of tires and construction materials drove up, and he told the attendant to not let that stuff be unloaded into the green boxes. The attendant directed the driver of that truck to take the load to the landfill.
Henderson said the public either needs to treat that green box site with respect or the Caesar Mountain site will need to be permanently closed, and, he added, “I want to do that.”
Before being shut down by SWA Chairman Ed Riley, who said no public comment was allowed at this meeting, Beth Little commented about how important the green boxes at that site are to Hillsboro area residents. She also said that recently when she had walked into the site when it was closed, there was a scary person wearing a knife and also what she believed to be a firearm, climbing inside one of the green boxes, allegedly looking for aluminum cans, but she is also concerned that people might be looking at mail to commit identity theft. She said she won’t go to the site anymore when it is closed.
Riley said that a fence won’t help at the site, but member Dave McLaughlin said what is needed is a solid guard rail or a three-strand wire fence made with two-inch cable and held up by metal poles set in concrete six feet apart, rather than a traditional fence, to prevent people from driving prohibited materials to the boxes when the site is closed. The members voted to build at least 600 feet of some sort of strong fence and replace the pole gate. Riley and Henderson agreed, but said if that does not solve the problem, the site should be shut down and Hillsboro area people will just have to go to the Marlinton Green Box site.
The members agreed to rebuild the 30 to 40 feet of fence that was destroyed at the Marlinton green box site.
In addition, the members addressed the concerns that their two old garbage trucks might both break down at the same time. They voted to submit an application to Premier Truck Sales in Ohio that will enable them, in case such an emergency happens, to lease a truck for the minimum four-week period at a cost of $9,800 plus $950 delivery and a $950 pickup fee – unless the SWA picks it up and delivers it back to Ohio themselves. They said the only other option would be to work with a Florida company with similar pricing.
They also held a discussion about future operations once the landfill closes. Member Jamie Walker said the only affordable way forward is to operate the green box system only and limit the operation to only accepting household trash. He said they will still need the landfill site to store equipment and to maintain the 30 years of post-closure maintenance there. They said that site is also already permitted if they want to add a transfer station there in the future or if they want to continue to do tire and white goods recycling. Riley agreed, saying that to use another site for that would cost millions of dollars to get it permitted, plus they still need to be at the old landfill site for monitoring. The authority said they will have to really tighten up the operation of the green boxes to make that work, preventing unauthorized materials from being placed in those boxes. Citizens would have to contract with a private hauler to dispose of other materials, or take them to another county’s landfill themselves. No action was taken on this discussion at the meeting.
