Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
At the May 28 Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority Board meeting, member David McLaughlin told the board that he had been talking with Jacob Meck of Allegheny Disposal about using the transfer station that company is planning to open when the county landfill closes in about 22 months. McLaughlin said he didn’t think having two transfer stations in a county as small as ours would work, nor would hauling our green box trash ourselves to the Greenbrier County Landfill. Chairman Dave Henderson chastised McLaughlin for talking to Meck without approval to do so and said the SWA is considering directly hauling trash to Greenbrier County and not building a transfer station. McLaughlin replied that hauling trash with our truck would not work. Henderson then said “we don’t know that,” since he had asked Landfill Manager Chris McComb to try running the green box trash to the Greenbrier landfill, but McComb didn’t do it the way Henderson wanted.
“We took a load down there…,” McComb responded.
“Yeah, but you didn’t do it the way I asked you to do it,” replied Henderson. “But we needed an actual…just a day for you to do that…just a day…just—just one day is all I wanted, just one day.”
This prompted an angry exchange between McComb and Henderson.
“I do what I have to do to make my job work,” McComb said. “If I leave at 7:30 in the morning, I am not gonna get back until quitting time. All right, next Monday I’ll send Kevin Waugh there and we will see what happens.”
“What’s the big deal about?” replied Henderson.
“What’s the big deal?” answered McComb. “It ain’t gonna work! It cannot! (voice raised) Saturday(s) we got to go to the green boxes and empty trash. What are we gonna do then…can’t go to Greenbrier County. Green boxes are open Saturday and Sunday…”
“We know that, Chris!” answered Henderson also in a raised voice. “And you, you know, loud – and I’m not gonna have that so sit back there and be quiet.” (Member Ed Riley stepped in to try and calm things down,) but McComb said “Me too!”
Things did get calmer after that, as McComb explained that the Greenbrier Landfill has very specific times that they are open, and they close early on Saturdays. He said when he made the test run to the Greenbrier Landfill, he spent five hours just hauling the trash from the green boxes at Huntersville, Caesar Mountain and half a load from Marlinton – which was all the truck would hold. When he got back, he picked up the rest of the trash from Marlinton and all the trash from the Green Bank boxes, which he had to take to our landfill because of time constraints.
Jacob Meck once again offered to allow them to bring the green box trash to the transfer station he is building in Green Bank, and he will haul it from there, but it will probably cost $135 or $145 a ton tipping fee for him to do that. He said that if he is hauling county trash, he will need about a year to get all the state permits so he will have to have a decision in July or August in order to be ready when the landfill closes.
Although the SWA Board members agreed that they will have to make a decision soon on how they will handle trash after the landfill closes, they did not make any decision at this meeting.
In other business, the board
• approved the 2025-2026 budget, which does not include any employee pay raises.
• agreed to pay $30 per mowing of grass at the green box sites.
• reported they did not receive any bids for the greenhouse repairs at the landfill
• is still waiting to remove the old sand and replace it at the landfill sand filter.
• agreed to sell surplus trailers, broken trash trucks, old dumpsters and the old portable loading dock.
• agreed to request that the Public Service Commission allow them to use money from their construction escrow account for the engineering costs and repairs at the landfill.