Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
At its September 25 meeting, the Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority received and voted to accept a proposal from Kolton Alderson of K.A. Ground Works to replace the entire fence at the Caesar Mountain Green Box site and the damaged parts of the fence at the Marlinton site. The replacement will be 30-inch-high guardrails supported every six feet by concrete embedded metal posts. The total quote for both sites was $7,000.
The main purpose of the fencing is to prohibit vehicles from accessing the site when closed which should prevent construction debris from being dumped in the boxes. Walkways are already in place to allow citizens to walk in after hours to dispose of household trash.
The guardrails will also be more resistant to deliberate destruction, which has been the fate of the traditional fence. The gates at both sites will also be repaired and reinstalled.
SWA members also acted on a proposal to remove the small buildings that are inside the green box sites. Those buildings are being used by citizens as spaces to place still usable furniture and other items for people who may need them. The members agreed with landfill manager Chris McComb that the green box sites attract a lot of people looking for used items, and attracting more people to the sites can cause problems. McComb said that most of the items eventually must be transported at great expense to the landfill. He said green box sites are for disposing of household trash, not serving as markets for free, second-hand items.
Asked what he would do with the buildings, McComb said he would crush them and dispose of them in the landfill. Member David McLaughlin suggested that they first place advertisements to attempt to sell the buildings. McLaughlin made a motion to that effect which passed. The motion also says if the buildings don’t sell, they will be demolished.
There was also a discussion about placing a gate by the cattleguard at the actual entrance to the landfill. Locking that gate when the landfill is closed would not only serve as an extra security measure to keep vehicles out of the landfill after closing but would also reduce or eliminate the need for landfill workers to clean out the cattleguard. No action was taken on this because the purchase of the landfill is still not a definite deal.
They also took no action on the potential purchase of the landfill by the county commission for the same reason.
SWA Chairman Ed Riley said the recent landfill inspection turned up four violations, which have all been addressed and fixed.
Riley also said that the Tucker County Solid Waste Authority solved their financial difficulties, caused by a shortage of trash disposal at their landfill which created a shortage of tipping fees. He said they did so by striking a deal with the Region 8 Solid Waste Authority. Under this deal, the Tucker County Solid Waste will pay the cost of transporting Region 8’s trash to the Tucker County Landfill, but Region 8 will pay the landfill’s tipping fee.
Riley suggested, and the other members voted to support, a motion to write a letter to the Tucker County Solid Waste Authority, which has been taken over by the State Solid Waste Authority Board and asking them for the same deal as they gave to the Region 8 Solid Waste Authority. Realistically, the members seemed to agree this is a long shot, but nothing ventured is nothing gained.
The meeting closed with an Executive Session to discuss surveillance systems at the green box sites.
