Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
We learned at the March 26 meeting of the Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) that the county commission has now purchased the formerly leased county landfill, with the deed being officially recorded with the County Clerk’s office on March 17. That finalized more than two years of back-and-forth negotiations that, at times, looked like the purchase might fall through.
Now that the county owns the landfill on behalf of the SWA, the agreement included with that purchase requires that the SWA build about 2,220 feet of fence and install several gates, including two ten-foot wide, two eight-foot wide, and one 16-foot wide gates along that fence line. The SWA had put that out to bid.
They received four bids, and selected the lowest one, which was from Jake Workman’s company, JX Enterprises, LLC. The bid was for $13,707.50 and was for a fence with 10-foot spacing between posts. After being awarded the bid, Workman told the SWA members that he would begin the job around the third week in April.
The SWA board conducted a public comment hearing on the rates charged for use of the green boxes. The public meeting was opened and quickly closed since there was no one there to comment. Members of the public still have until April 7 to send their comments about the green box fees to the SWA. Based on their evaluation of any public comments they receive, plus their own evaluations of the charges needed, the SWA will set the fee for next year during its April meeting. The fee is currently $120 per year.
Also at the meeting, Mary Clendenen advised the members during her report of the financial statement, that they will be over budget on engineering costs since there was a $45,000 charge to study the engineering regarding the new turf the SWA is planning to use at the landfill. SWA Chairman Dave Henderson said he plans to discuss the amount of this charge with the engineering company.
The members voted to apply for the maximum allowable amount -$20,000 – from the WV Solid Waste Management Board Grant this year. It was explained it will be used to pay for utilities, same as last year.
During his landfill report, Chris McComb asked for permission to dispose of or sell excess equipment, including two old and unusable trash trucks, a portable loading dock they don’t use or need, about 12 old dumpsters, and about 20 old and unused recycling trailers. The members voted to allow that, however said that all but five of their recycling trailers were bought for them by the state, so they will need to clear that with them first.
McComb also asked the SWA members to hire a full-time helper at the landfill, since they don’t have enough people to keep the site clean and pick-up trash. He said there are only three people working there now. The SWA will consider this request.
At Henderson’s suggestion, McComb agreed to make some trash runs to the Greenbrier Valley Landfill to determine the travel costs and the amount of time those will take when needed if the landfill becomes a transfer station.
Henderson also commented that he visited the Tygart Valley Transfer Station and discussed their possible offer to transport the county’s trash once the switch is made to a transfer station. He said they will be visiting our landfill in the near future.
Henderson said that unexpected large expenses will be occurring soon at the landfill because the greenhouse is falling apart and needs to be replaced; the sand filters need to be re-done, and the treatment pond outlet keeps getting stopped up which will need to be drained and fixed. Member Dave McLaughlin suggested that those repairs might be able to come out of the construction escrow account, if the Public Service Commission allows that.
