Solid Waste Authority Takes First Step Towards Building Own Transfer Station

At the September 24^th Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) meeting, three of the four members -all except for David McLaughlin- voted to order three walking floor trailers at a cost of $109,383 each for a total of $328,149. Mary Clendenen, the SWA Office Administrator, told the members that they only have about $300,000 in total unrestricted funds available. These trailers would be needed for the SWA to operate its own transfer station once the landfill closes in about a year.

Clendenen said the company, Southeast Trailers is a West Virginia Sourcewell approved company, which means that competitive bidding to purchase from these companies is not needed. She said that the company would need to receive the order by Monday, September 29^th in order to guarantee delivery by September of 2026, but a down payment will not be needed at the time the order is placed. SWA member Phillip Cobb said that if we don’t vote to order those trailers at this meeting, we “may as well fold up.” Cobb made the motion to purchase them and after a discussion, they added a caveat to the motion that it be dependent upon their being able to finance the purchase, although it is unknown if the company will accept that caveat.

They next discussed whether or not they will be doing the trucking of the trash from the transfer station themselves, or hire a commercial trucking company to haul it to either the Greenbrier County or Tucker County landfills. Jacob Meck was asked by member David McLaughlin if his company, Allegheny Disposal, will be building its own transfer station in Green Bank since the SWA had turned down his proposal to build the county transfer station at the landfill. Meck did not provide a definitive answer except to say: “we will continue to service our customers next year.” The members commented that if they lose Allegheny Disposal’s tipping fees to their new transfer station, it will make things very difficult or impossible financially for the SWA to build and operate its own transfer station, since there is not enough trash generated in the county to operate two different transfer stations. Allegheny Disposal accounts for a very large percentage of the tipping fees at the current landfill. Henderson remarked that time is running out and “it’s not like we didn’t see this coming.”

Meck was also asked by McLaughlin if he would consider contracting with the SWA to haul the trash for the county’s transfer station and if he would be willing to pull the county’s walking floor trailers that they just agreed to purchase. Meck said he would be willing to discuss and possibly consider both of those ideas.

Henderson made it clear he preferred that the SWA haul the trash themselves but would need to buy 1 or 2 new tractor trucks to haul the trailers, and those cost about ½ million dollars each.

McLaughlin suggested that they at least sign a short-term hauling contract with a private hauler to give themselves some time to figure out if they are able to do it themselves, but the other members seemed to show little or no interest in doing that.

Regarding the closure process of the landfill, which is expected to occur in about I year due to it reaching its capacity, the members passed a motion to have Potesta & Associates do site visits and drawings needed to start the bidding process for the closure. The members also scheduled a special meeting for October 15^th to start updating their plans for the closure

SWA President Dave Henderson mentioned that Mary Clendenen made a presentation at the last County Commission meeting which detailed their proposal to build and operate their own transfer station at the landfill site after it closes. Clendenen also said she has talked with Chelsea Faulknier of the Convention and Visitors Bureau about that plan, and Faulknier will present the proposal to their board members and see if they can approach the commissioners to assist the SWA in obtaining funds.

Clendenen added that at least one of the commissioners, Thane Ryder, expressed an interest in coming to the landfill when Potesta does its site visit to get an idea of what is being planned.

The SWA members all seemed to agree that they are hoping to obtain a 1% half-a-million-dollar loan from the WV Solid Waste Board, as well as annual money from the County Commission and raising the tipping fees and green box fees to be able to afford all of this.