Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
Pocahontas Solid Waste Authority (SWA) met February 4, where members heard three options for future operations which resulted from negotiation meetings between SWA member David McLaughlin and Jacob Meck, owner of Allegheny Disposal.
SWA Chairman David Henderson said the State Solid Waste Board is encouraging the SWA to work with Allegheny Disposal to develop future operational plans. Henderson said they considered many options, including developing trash compactor centers, and building a transfer station at the landfill, with their primary consideration being minimizing the cost increase to the citizens as much as possible. Henderson explained the SWA unsuccessfully tried to get financial help from the county commission to build and operate a transfer station themselves. He said the SWA agreed to form the negotiation group with Allegheny Disposal at its December 17 meeting. Henderson then asked Meck to present the options that resulted from those negotiation meetings.
Meck described the three options, all of which involve Allegheny Disposal building a transfer station at the county landfill which will be operated by the SWA.
Option #1 involves Allegheny Disposal building the transfer station at the county landfill site, with the building costs to be paid for by the SWA through a 15-year building lease with Allegheny Disposal. Meck said this would be a lease-to-own with a buyout at the end of the 15 years after when the SWA would own the building. He said the property on which the building would be built would continue to be owned by the county for tax purposes. The monthly lease would be $15,952, increasing yearly by the Federal Consumer Price Increase (CPI) rate (currently 2.7%) minus 2%, so if the CPI remains the same the first year, the lease will only increase .7% resulting in a $111.67 monthly increase. The buyout at the end of the of 15 years would be $960,000 plus the CPI rate increases.
Meck said this option would include Allegheny disposal providing and maintaining both the structure and the trash crane. He believes this is the most economical of the three options for the SWA.
Option #2 would lower the monthly lease payment to $10,986 plus a CPI rate minus only .25%. This would be achieved by spreading the lease out over 40 years instead of 15 years as in Option 1. It also would not include Allegheny Disposal either supplying or maintaining the trash crane or maintaining the structure. The buyout at the end of the 40 years would be $1.
Option #3 would also be a 40-year lease to own with a structure buyout at the end of the lease and a buyout of the crane at the end of 15 years for $1. The monthly lease payment would be $14,836 with the annual increase of the CPI rate minus 1%. This option would not include a maintenance plan for either the structure or the crane.
Meck also included sample SWA Budgets which reflect lease costs for each of the options.
Henderson said the SWA members would need time to digest and decide on these options, but they would announce a decision at the February 18 special SWA meeting.
Henderson also delivered some good news at this meeting. He said that their engineering firm – Podesta – has announced that, based on their latest inspection of the county landfill, they estimate that its usable life has been extended from the original estimated fill-up and closure in October 2026 until December 2026, which provides an additional two months to have an alternative plan in place and implemented.
