'There's no conspiracy,' solid waste chairman says of proposed ordinance

By Lisa Majors-Duff

That's according to Maurice Moody, who spoke to Jackson County commissioners Nov. 15 as chairman of the solid waste advisory board. Moody said he and his board would be willing meet again on the subject Thursday, Dec. 6, "until we have an ordinance the commissioners will pass." That meeting is scheduled to get under way at 5 p.m. at the Justice Center.

"There's no conspiracy against the haulers that I know of," Moody told the commission. "It's not the goal of the ordinance to put the haulers out of business."

About a dozen private haulers spoke against the county's proposed solid waste management plan during a public hearing Nov. 1. Their main concern, they said, was a provision that would prevent them from disposing of someone else's household garbage at the county's staffed recycling centers at no cost.

Currently, anyone can dispose of just about anything at county SRCs, with exceptions for obvious toxins such as paint, motor oil and car batteries, to name a few. County taxpayers and business owners are assessed an annual fee of $60 designed to pay for a portion of this service. That fee amounts to about half ­ or $900,000 ­ of what is required to pay for solid waste collection and disposal.

As stated in the preamble, the purpose of the ordinance is to regulate the storage, collection, transportation, reuse, recycling and disposal of solid waste and to establish the Jackson County Solid Waste Board. In addition to more clearly defining exactly what solid waste is and how best to handle it, the proposed ordinance could save tax dollars if for-profit haulers are excluded from using SRCs.

Instead, private haulers would be required to transport what they've collected to a landfill and pay that facility's tipping fees. That cost of doing business, some county officials, including board Chairman Jay Denton, argue, should then be passed on to the customers.

But other board members had their doubts following the Nov. 1 public hearing. Both Commissioners Roberta Crawford and Conrad Burrell expressed concern that the ordinance could harm private haulers, while Commissioner Stacy Buchanan continued to advocate for a "pay-as-you-throw" system as the only fair way to collect fees for garbage disposal.

"We had lengthy discussions about this," Denton said Nov. 15, referring to the provision restricting private haulers access to the SRCs, "but some commissioners have pulled away from that position. The SRCs are not convenient centers for the haulers, but for the citizens."

"We need some provision for those who cannot get to the SRCs," Crawford said, restating an argument made Nov. 1 by haulers who said many of their customers are either homebound or otherwise unable to travel to an SRC.

"How did those people get their groceries in their house in the first place?" Denton asked in response. "Nothing's going to please everybody," Moody said, "but compromise is possible."

Commissioners will meet with members of the county planning board at 6 p.m. Dec. 6 to discuss progress on an ordinance to regulate the construction of telecommunications towers. They will hold their regular session at 7 p.m.

Back to Archive: 11/29/01.