White County To Apply For Solid Waste Grants

The White County Solid Waste Committee approved the application for grants to help with the county’s convenience centers and tire recycling facility.

County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said the first grant would allow the county to expand and improve the equipment at its convenience centers. Robinson said the county’s population and the amount of trash it handles have grown significantly and its centers are struggling to keep up.

“We hope to make it a cleaner, more user-friendly facility,” Robinson said. “And getting people in and out quicker. Like I say, it’s the same system we had thirty years ago and times are just different. Sometimes they’re starting, getting backed up and people are having to wait.”

Robinson said the second grant would help the county establish an all-new tire recycling facility. Robinson said the current recycling location at the landfill must be moved.

“Us as the county, we’re having to move, we’ve got to move on that anyway,” Robinson said. “So if the grant would come in that would be great, that would be helpful.”

Robinson said he hopes the county could add more pavement to its convenience centers so locals are not driving through rocks and mud to access them. Robinson said the county may not receive the convenience center grant because all of its facilities are already manned, but the planned upgrades still fall within the grant’s specifications.

“I’m not sure exactly what that looks like,” Robinson said. “I don’t know if we go, I’ve been talking with the maintenance department, we may go to the one that’s the worst and start there and fix it up or I don’t know if we may do buildings here, building there, building there. I don’t know how that’s going to look but we’ll come up with a system.”

Robinson said the county has a location for the tire recycling facility behind the convenience center on Highway 42 where he hopes it will be set up in the next couple months. Robinson said getting the grant for that effort would save the county money but not change the work involved in the project.

“Waste Management’s real nice letting us still use their facility there,” Robinson said. “And they’re not pushing us, but they’ve been good to us and we want to keep our word that we’re trying to get out of your way.”

Robinson said the county will move forward with both projects as resources permit whether or not it gets the grants. Robinson said he hopes to know whether or not the county will receive both grants by June or July.