By: Lydia Crawley The Parsons Advocate
The Tucker County Solid Waste Authority will soon be making plans to construct a new waste disposal cell at the Tucker County Landfill, according to Presiding Chair Mark Holstine. The announcement of the need for a new cell came as part of Holstine’s Director’s Report March 24th.
Holstine said the Landfill is within two years of the need for a new cell. While that may sound like a lot of time, Holstine said that plans need to start being made soon for the construction. “We are within two years of a new cell,” Holstine said. “Which means we are within a year of starting to construct a new waste disposal cell.”
A reduction of the cost of construction is going to be made by doing much of the work in house, Holstine said. “We are going to try to reduce the cost of the new cell by doing some stuff ourselves,” Holstine said.
The in house construction will require some capital output in the form of the purchase of equipment for the task, Holstine said. “That will require some capital outlet to buy equipment,” Holstine said. “A crusher, a strainer. We can make our own rock for the protective cover if we can screen our own clay and save us some money.”
Without the purchase of equipment or doing the work themselves, Holstine said the project is estimated to cost $1.6 million, but by doing much of the work in house the Landfill can cut the cost in half. “We have a preliminary estimate of $1.6 million for a new cell,” Holstine said. “We can take almost half of that off just by producing our own protective stone layer over the liner. That’s almost an $800,000 expense in the estimate we got.”
To complete the construction, the Landfill will need to purchase specialized equipment and has already begun purchasing some. “We are going to have to purchase probably a $250,000 crusher to do that with,” Holstine said. “We’ve already bought the hammer to help start.”
In the near future, Holstine said that the Authority would be finalizing estimates from engineers. Over the next two years, Holstine said, the Authority will have a lot to do and it will impact their financial bottom line. “Over the next month to 60 days, we will be finalizing some estimates from the engineer,” Holstine said. “We’ve got a lot on our plate coming at us within the next two years to keep us in a positive cash flow, a positive net revenue at the end of the year. We’re not going to have it as good as we’ve had it over the last two.”
“So those are the things that are on the horizon,” Holstine said.
