Solid Waste Authority Votes to Accept Revised Landfill Deed & Mutual Agreement

At their January 29th meeting, the Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) voted to accept the revised landfill purchase deed and the mutual agreement between the SWA and the sellers -The Fertig Family Farm. Like the commission also did when they approved it, the SWA members added that this approval is contingent upon the sellers’ willingness to forego any lease owed after January 1. The contingency has yet to be presented to the Fertig Family Farm representatives, but the members said this would be done before the February 4th County Commission Meeting so that if the contingency is also agreed to by the sellers before that meeting, details such as a settlement date and procedures can be set at that meeting. Member Jamie Walker reminded the other members that if the seller requires the lease payment that was due on January 1st, the sale will not happen, and the SWA will need to pay the rent due.

The SWA members also held elections for their Chairman and Vice-chairman for the upcoming year. Since the current Chairman, Ed Riley, declined to run for reelection, the members nominated Dave Henderson to be their new Chairman and David McLaughlin to be Vice Chairman, and since there were no other nominations, they were elected.

The SWA’s CPA, Mark Joseph, delivered a review of his detailed financial statement. He described employee expenses, assets, liabilities, income from green boxes and tipping fees, and other very detailed reports in a multi-page document which was provided to the members. Some highlights included that operating revenue increased in 2024 to $971,749, compared to about $865,000 in 2023 and $761,000 in 2022. Joseph explained this was mostly due to increased loads subject to the tipping fee and the raising of both the tipping fee and the green box fees last year. He mentioned that the SWA could continue to operate for 96 days even if all additional income stopped. In 2024 the SWA took in about $543,000 in green box fees and about $950,000 in tipping fees.

Chris McComb, the Landfill Manager mentioned that they had water freezing problems at the landfill due to the recent cold spell, but as of the meeting date, those have all been fixed, and they have installed additional wiring and outlet boxes in the building to enable additional electric heating to help prevent this in the future. He also mentioned that since the last meeting, the green box problems – which are disposing of inappropriate materials and overflowing the boxes- have improved significantly at all the sites.

Henderson also reported that there were no major problems with their groundwater monitoring or their water flow rate and directional inspections.

He also said the WV Auditor’s Office has given their second audit delay, now until March 31 for their 2024 financial audit of the SWA, due to backlogs at the Auditor’s Office.

The members also voted to approve their 2024 Annual Operational Report

 

Story By

Tim Walker

Tim is the WVMR News Reporter. Tim is a native of Maryland who started coming to Pocahontas County in the 1970’s as a caver. He bought land on Droop Mountain off Jacox Road in 1976 and built a small house there in the early 80’s. While still working in Maryland, Tim spent much time at his place which is located on the Friars Hole Cave Preserve. Retiring in 2011 as a Lieutenant with the Anne Arundel County Police Department in Maryland, Tim finally took the plunge and moved from Maryland to his real home on Droop Mountain. He began working as the Pocahontas County Reporter for Allegheny Mountain Radio in January of 2015.

Current Weather

MARLINTON WEATHER
WARM SPRINGS WEATHER
MONTEREY WEATHER