|
Jackson, Macon reach settlement on landfill contract
By Lynn Hotaling and Derek Hodges
After months of negotiations, Jackson and Macon county officials this week separately approved a settlement concerning the landfill the two counties agreed in 1995 to share.
The agreement, approved Monday night (Feb. 7) by Macon County leaders and Tuesday night by Jackson's commissioners, calls for Jackson to pay Macon $250,000 over the next four years. In return, the landfill contract between the two counties will be mutually terminated, according to Jackson County Manager Ken Westmoreland.
 |
Jackson and Macon county officials met Tuesday (Feb. 8) at the Macon County Landfill to congratulate each other on the settlement that puts an end to disagreement between the two boards about the amount Jackson owed Macon for dissolving the solid waste compact the two boards signed in 1995. Jackson's commissioners paid Macon $1.38 million for the right to use its then-new lined landfill, but withdrew from the agreement in June 2003 when they found they could send trash to Homer, Ga., for $21.15 per ton, less than half the $43-per-ton tipping fee in Franklin. Under the settlement, Jackson will pay Macon $250,000 over the next four years and be released from all further obligations, said Jackson County Manager Ken Westmoreland. From left are Commissioner Eddie Madden, Macon Commissioner Charlie Leatherman, Commissioner Brian McMahan, Commissioners' Chairman Stacy Buchanan, Macon Commissioners' Chairman Allan Bryson, Macon Commissioners Bob Simpson and J.D. Shepherd, and Commissioner Roberta Crawford. Not pictured is Commissioner Joe Cowan. – Herald photo by Derek Hodges
"There was a discrepancy in the terms of the final settlement, and we finally agreed on terms," he said. "I feel (the agreement) is generally favorable to Jackson County."
The main sticking point was the post-closure landfill costs, Westmoreland said.
Once a landfill is closed, its operators can be forced to deal with leachate and other issues for as long as 30 years, Westmoreland said.
Payment of the $250,000 will release Jackson County from all other obligations regarding Macon County's landfill, including the contract's stipulation that Jackson must site a landfill to accommodate both counties' trash once the Macon dump reaches capacity, he said.
"That's the real benefit to this county," Westmoreland said, adding that costs associated with opening a landfill are about $350,000 per acre and would likely require a 100-acre site.
Both counties' commissioners' chairmen said they were pleased the landfill conflict has been put to rest.
"We're glad that we're getting along now," said Macon's Allan Bryson. "We want to bury the hatchet between the two counties."
"I want to say 'congratulations' to all those who were involved in this action," said Jackson's Stacy Buchanan. "I think it's historic."
Jackson County leaders voted in June 2003 to terminate the agreement between the two boards after learning they could send trash to Homer, Ga., for $21.15 per ton, less than half the $43 per ton tipping fee in Macon County.
One year later, a report from Charlotte engineering firm HDR indicated Jackson owed Macon some $480,641 for its decision to terminate the contract. Jackson officials disagreed with that assessment and hired Altamont Environmental to conduct further studies.
Altamont's report, completed last July, reached a different conclusion and indicated that Macon could owe Jackson as much as $592,000.
HDR arrived at the $480,541 by estimating that Jackson County had used 17.2 percent of the landfill's overall capacity based on the total amount of air space filled by trash hauled in from Jackson, according to Altamont's John Thornton. Initially, HDR pegged Jackson's bill at $208,715 based on Jackson's solid waste occupying 13.4 percent of the landfill's capacity, based on total tonnage, Thornton said.
According to Thornton, Jackson has already paid Macon some $6.6 million, or about $102 per ton, to place solid waste in the lined landfill.
While both counties agreed in fall 2003 to hire HDR to evaluate the contract's worth, Thornton said HDR did not follow agreed-upon procedures and may have missed the mark in determining that Jackson owed money to Macon.
HDR's evaluation was to take six to eight weeks but instead took eight months, Thornton said. Also, HDR agreed to meet with officials from each county individually but did not do so, he said, and issued a final report without discussion with Jackson County.
Facing a state mandate to close the unlined Dillsboro landfill, Jackson County's commissioners voted in 1995 to pay Macon $1.38 million for the right to use its then-new lined landfill.
The agreement called for Jackson and Macon to split the cost of operations and required Jackson County to site the next landfill that would be used by both counties.
|
