Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
At its January 29 meeting, the Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) voted to accept the revised landfill purchase deed and the mutual agreement between the SWA and the sellers – Fertig Family Farm. As the Pocahontas County Commission did when they approved it, the SWA members added that this approval is contingent upon the seller’s willingness to forego any lease payment owed after January 1. The contingency has yet to be presented to the Fertig Family Farm representatives, but the members said this would be done before the February 4 county commission meeting so that if the contingency is also agreed to by the sellers before that meeting, details such as a settlement date and procedures can be set at that meeting. Member Jamie Walker reminded the other members that if the seller requires the lease payment that was due on January 1, 2025, the sale will not happen, and the SWA will need to make the payment.
The SWA members also held elections for Chairman and Vice-Chairman for the upcoming year. Since the current Chairman, Ed Riley, declined to run for reelection, the members nominated Dave Henderson to be their new Chairman and David McLaughlin to be Vice-Chairman. There were no other nominations and they were elected.
The SWA’s CPA, Mark Joseph, delivered a review of his detailed financial statement. He described employee expenses, assets, liabilities, income from green boxes and tipping fees, and other very detailed reports in a multi-page document which was provided to the members. Some highlights included that operating revenue increased in 2024 to $971,749, compared to about $865,000 in 2023 and $761,000 in 2022. Joseph explained this was mostly due to increased loads subject to the tipping fee and the raising of both the tipping fee and the green box fees last year. He mentioned that the SWA could continue to operate for 96 days even if all additional income stopped.
Landfill Manager Chris McComb mentioned that they had problems with water freezing at the landfill during to the recent cold spell, but as of the meeting date, everything had been fixed, and they have installed additional wiring and outlet boxes in the building to enable additional electric heaters to prevent this in the future. He also mentioned that since the last meeting, the green box problems – disposing of inappropriate materials and overflowing the boxes – have improved significantly at all the sites.
Henderson also reported that there were no major problems with their groundwater monitoring or their water flow rate and directional inspections.
He also said the WV Auditor’s Office has given their second audit delay until March 31 for their 2024 financial audit of the SWA, due to backlogs at the Auditor’s Office.
The members also voted to approve their 2024 Annual Operational Report.
