By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
County to discuss transfer station location
mike foster III w sm
FOSTER
Faced with the expense of maintaining the county landfill and the possible environmental responsibilities, officials are discussing plans to get out of the landfill business by building a solid waste transfer station and recycling center.While no definite location for the station, which could be completed within the next year, has been chosen, a spot in Smithville Industrial Development Park is being eyed as a possibility.“We have a set of very early plans but we're continuing to do some work on them,” County Mayor Mike Foster told the assembly at a recent county commission meeting. “We'll be getting with Smithville Mayor Jimmy Poss, the aldermen, and the Industrial Development Board to talk more about that.“All of you on the commission know that we have been working toward this end probably for the last eight or nine years. We have accumulated and allowed to build a fund balance that will allow us to build the transfer station and a Class III/IV cell, and to close most of the Class I landfill where it is now when its full,” the mayor said.According to Foster, a class III/IV cell will not be as problematic to operate as the class I cell.“We plan to go to a Class III/IV cell which is non-household garbage, which could be for construction materials and that kind of thing in the area where the landfill is now, but we would have a transfer station for household garbage,” the mayor said.The new arrangement would call for convenience sites to be maintained around the county, but the resulting rubbish would then be brought by truck to the transfer station, where it would be separated from recyclable material and transferred to a another county.Local trash would be contracted to the outside landfill at a certain price per ton, and recyclable material would be baled and sold.Foster said Smith County and Rutherford County are the two most likely places for DeKalb’s garbage to end up.“It would be brought in and loaded on a truck and carried to whoever gets the lowest bid for taking the garbage.