The county is turning a portion of the solid waste operation over to a private company.
During Monday night’s monthly meeting, the county commission voted to enter into a three year contract with Southern Central Waste Services, LLC. of McMinnville to operate the new soon to open solid waste transfer station located behind Tenneco Automotive.
The SCWS bid proposal, one of two submitted, was recommended to the county commission by the solid waste committee.
SCWS will provide operation of the transfer station, hauling, and disposal of DeKalb County’s household garbage at the Rhea County Landfill in Dayton, Tennessee, which is operated by Santec Environmental Inc.
“The bid was for SCWS to operate the transfer station; to provide two employees; a scale operator; an equipment operator; to furnish the equipment to load the trucks; to pay all utilities at the transfer station; and to do the transfer station billing. The county will receive all proceeds from tipping fees of other vendors who use the transfer station,” said County Mayor Tim Stribling.
The county will pay the following rates to SCWS based on incoming weights:
*Up to 1,000 tons per month: $55 per ton
*1001 to 1250 tons per month: $54 per ton
*1251 to 1500 tons per month: $53 per ton
1501 or more tons per month: $51 per ton.
Original plans were for the county to operate the transfer station itself and to ship the garbage to Smith County for disposal at $29 per ton but County Mayor Stribling said he and others found that it was cheaper to contract the service to a private company.
“Back in August we asked for two different types of bids. One was for shipping the waste and the other was for operating the transfer station as a whole including loading, shipping, and tipping. We didn’t receive any bids at that time. A few weeks after a couple of companies showed some interest. We rebid it with the intention of one company operating the transfer station, loading the trucks, shipping it, and tipping it,” said County Mayor Stribling.
Two companies submitted bids including SCWS.
Since SCWS will be assuming all operation of the transfer station, the county no longer needs to maintain its disposal contract with Smith County and is expected to exercise its 120 day notice of termination clause in the agreement.
Second District Commissioner Joe Johnson asked County Mayor Stribling when the transfer station will begin operation since the landfill is at or near capacity.
“They could start sometime in February but what we need to do is send notices out to people (vendors) who use our landfill to let them know there is going to be a rate increase. That’s really no surprise. We knew there would be a rate increase when we went to a transfer station because once you dump it you have to handle it again. You have to load it, ship it, and tip it. You can’t operate a transfer station as cheap as a landfill,” said County Mayor Stribling.
The county still has to decide whether or not to open a new Class III landfill for the disposal of construction material, household furniture, and other non-household garbage. “We will still look at the possibility of opening up a Class III Landfill but they (SCWS) will take anything that goes into a Class III cell. They will take mattresses, couches, or anything we put in our landfill. Of course like us they will not accept household hazardous waste, sludge, etc.,” added County Mayor Stribling.
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