Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority Facing a Big Decision

At the February 4^th Pocahontas Solid Waste Authority (SWA) meeting, the members heard three options for their future operations which resulted from negotiation meetings between member David McLaughlin representing the SWA and Jacob Meck of Allegheny Disposal.

SWA Chairman David Henderson commented that the State Solid Waste Board was encouraging the Pocahontas SWA to work with Allegheny Disposal in developing their future operational plans. Henderson said they considered many options, including developing trash compactor centers, and building a transfer station at the landfill, with their priority consideration being minimizing the cost increase to the citizens as much as possible. He explained that they unsuccessfully tried to get financial help from the County Commission in building and running a transfer station themselves. He said the SWA agreed to form the negotiation group with Allegheny Disposal at their December 17^th meeting. Henderson then asked Meck to present the options that resulted from those negotiation meetings.

Meck described the three options, all of which involve Allegheny Disposal building a transfer station at the county landfill which will be operated by the SWA.

OPTION #1:  involves Allegheny Disposal building the transfer station at the county landfill site, with the building costs to be paid for by the SWA through a 15 year building lease with Allegheny Disposal. Meck said this would be a lease-to-own with a buyout at the end of the 15 years after which the SWA would own the building. He said the property on which the building would be built would remain owned by the county for tax purposes. The monthly lease would be $15,952, increasing yearly by the Federal Consumer Price Increase (CPI) rate (currently 2.7%) minus 2%, so if the CPI remains the same the first year, the lease will only increase .7% resulting in a $111.67 monthly increase. The buyout at the end of the of 15 years would be $960,000.00 plus the CPI rate increases.

Meck said this option would include Allegheny disposal providing and maintaining both the structure and the trash crane. He believes this is the most economical for the SWA of the three options.

OPTION #2: would lower the monthly lease payment to $10,986 plus a CPI rate minus only .25%. this would be achieved by spreading the lease out over 40 years instead of 15 years in Option 1. It also would not include Allegheny Disposal either supplying or maintaining the trash crane or maintaining the structure. The buyout at the end of the 40 years would be only $1.00.

OPTION #3: Would also be a 40-year lease to own with a structure buyout at the end of the lease and a buyout of the crane at the end of 15 years of $1.00. The monthly lease payment would be $14,836 with the annual increase of the CPI rate minus 1%. This option would not include a maintenance plan for either the structure or the crane.

Meck also included sample SWA Budgets which reflect lease cost for each of these options.

Henderson said that the SWA members would need time to digest and decide on these options, but they would reach and announce a decision at the February 18^th special SWA Meeting.

Henderson also delivered some good news at this meeting. He said that their engineering firm – Podesta – has announced that based on their latest inspection of the county landfill, they estimate that its usable life has been extended from the original estimated fill-up and closure in October of 2026 until December of 2026, which provides an additional 2 months to have an alternative plan in place and implemented.