News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The White County Commission will vote next to enter negotiations with Waste Management to take over the county landfill.
The Solid Waste Committee heard presentations from two companies Tuesday night who would manage the landfill on behalf of the county. County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said Waste Management received a 103.5 while Republic tallied a 97.65. The proposals were scored on a 110-point scale.
“That consisted of two parts,” Robinson said. “One being a written format that they submitted, a written proposal. Part two was a presentation proposal where they did a presentation to the Solid Waste Committee and the county commissioners.”
Robinson said he will not get too excited until a deal is done, but he is optimistic that Waste Management will be taking over the landfill. The county commission will now have to hold a vote on whether or not to enter negotiations with the company. No dollar amounts have been discussed at this point.
“There’s not really specifics,” Robinson said. “We’re going to start getting a host fee on trash that’s being brought in. They’re going to start taking care of White County’s waste such as that. A lot of stuff there is not a dollar amount on.”
Robinson said the landfill provided a problem too unique for the county to handle, because it is a Class 1 landfill.
“It takes household garbage and the bad stuff that’s got to be collected, the hard stuff, which there is few of those around,” Robinson said. “Us and Smith County are the only ones even in the Upper Cumberland that has one.”
“I just don’t think we have the capabilities without going in and investing a whole lot of money into the site and that will come from the taxpayers, and we definitely don’t want to do that. So, we’re looking at a deal that will have somebody to run it, manage it, to protect the environment.”
Robinson said it is simply too difficult to manage the regulations of a landfill for a county the size of White County.
“The restrictions and the rules and regulations have just gotten more and more stringent, which is probably a good thing we want to protect the Earth,” Robinson said. “We want to protect the water, but it’s becoming a process now that anybody that runs one is going to have to hire someone who specializes in that category. Basically, it’s an industry that I don’t feel government can run efficiently as a private industry.”
