Pocahontas Solid Waste Authority Approves Landfill Deed – With Revisions

At their December 4^th meeting, the Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) reviewed the landfill purchase deed as revised by their attorney. They had previously objected to a number of side agreements contained in the deed which was presented at the November 19^th County Commission meeting, especially ones that:

• Would require the solid Waste Authority to purchase liability insurance on the access road – Landfill Road, County Route 28/7 – since this is a public road.
• Included provisions limiting their right to obtain water from the Fertig Farm.
• Specified easement rights for the Fertig family to cross and use that road.
• Specified who is responsible for fencing alongside portions that road.

At that commission meeting, SWA member David Henderson had laid down an ultimatum that the SWA would only agree to the purchase of the landfill if all side agreements were removed from the deed since, if needed, they should be included in a separate agreement, not in the deed.

At this December 4^th meeting, they discussed these deed provisions with their attorney, and resolved their objections. They agreed to draw up a separate agreement regarding the fencing of the road. They also agreed to a revision to be included in the deed which recognizes that Landfill Road is a public road (County Route 28/7,) therefore there is no need for the SWA to insure it, and that the WV Department of Highways is responsible to maintain it, not the SWA. They also removed all references to wetlands and swamp land from the deed and made a few other minor changes.

The SWA then voted to approve the deed with these revisions, so now it will need to be presented to the County Commission and the Fertig Family for their concurrence with these revisions and with the separate agreement.

So, despite how bleak the finalizing of this landfill purchase appeared to be following that November 19^th commission meeting, it now appears more promising, provided the County Commission and the Fertig family approve these revisions and the separate agreement.

Also, at this SWA meeting, there was a discussion about the possible future need to change the hours that the green box sites will be open once the landfill has closed, and all trash needs to be transported to the Greenbrier County Landfill or another county’s landfill.  Chris McComb, the Landfill Manager pointed out that they now need to empty the green boxes and transport the waste to our landfill on both Saturdays and Sundays, or else the green boxes will overflow.  But he said after our landfill is shut down, we will be unable to do that on weekends because the Greenbrier County or other county’s landfills will not be open late enough on weekend to receive our trash. McComb suggested we might have to consider closing the green boxes on weekends after our landfill is filled up and shut down. SWA Member Jamie Walker said if we do that, people will just pile trash up outside the gates to the green box locations, adding that “the harder you make it for the public to dispose of trash, the more time and expense you will have to spend trying to enforce those rules,” and he said it will cause people to dump trash illegally in the county.

A possible solution was offered that they could just double the number of green boxes at each site so they can be emptied on Mondays without overflowing. In any event. It was pointed out that there will be time to make decisions regarding this in the future when the closing of our landfill is more imminent.

The SWA members also approved paying $1,600 for required extra water sampling at landfill wells 1 and 4 because of recent inconsistent sampling results.

They also approved extending their contract with Mark Joseph, their CPA, for his services preparing and reviewing their financial statements in 2025. They said he agreed to do quarterly reviews instead of the current annual review without increasing his charges to the SWA. The state is now requiring the quarterly reviews.

The SWA closed its meeting with an executive session on personnel matter.