U.S. 2 green-box plan being reconsidered
The Flathead County Solid Waste Board is rethinking a plan to permanently close all of its green-box garbage-collection sites in the remote U.S. 2 corridor, and this week directed Public Works Director Dave Prunty to investigate keeping a small site at Nyack.
The county was moving forward with plans to permanently close sites at Nyack, Glacier Haven (formerly known as the Denny’s site) and Essex and shift users to the Coram green-box site.
At its July meeting, however, the Solid Waste Board tabled action and asked Prunty to consider keeping a site at Nyack that would be serviced just one day a week.
“That might be a good compromise,” Prunty told the county commissioners on Wednesday. “Almost everyone [on the board] felt we should investigate that.”
The Nyack site currently offers three containers on BNSF Railway Co. property, but it’s not the most ideal location, he said. There’s a sight-distance problem on U.S. 2 for users as well as an obstacle: a nearby unloading ramp for a trailhead.
“If it’s just three cans it’s no big deal, but if it’s 30” it would be a challenge to retain the current Nyack site, he said.
The three remote sites collect less than 1 percent of the county’s garbage, yet at $104 per ton to haul the refuse, they’re the costliest sites. The county hauls 300 tons of garbage a year from the three remote sites; that compares to 30,000 tons annually from all the green boxes.
As it stands now, though, the county is losing money by servicing the remote sites. Prunty estimated it costs about $30,000 a year to maintain the Canyon loop, or about $85 per hour to operate the garbage truck.
Roughly $25,000 in solid-waste assessments is collected annually from residents in that area, but just $3,800 of that goes to the green-box container system. The rest is used for the county landfill.
“This is my issue,” Prunty said. “We’re getting $3,800 but it costs $30,000. It’s a hard decision here, but from a business point of view it will never pencil out.”
Commissioner Joe Brenneman wondered about contracting with a private garbage service for the Canyon, but that plan likely would require a bigger financial commitment from the 13 businesses along the highway corridor.
Although the green boxes are for residential use only, Prunty said many businesses use the sites even though they’re not supposed to. The county doesn’t have enough staff to patrol the green boxes and cite illegal users, he added.
Commissioner Jim Dupont suggested cutting out garbage pickup service during the winter as a way to make it more feasible.
Prunty said he would take suggestions from both the Solid Waste Board and the commissioners under advisement as he explores green-box options for the Canyon and Middle Fork areas.
PRUNTY ALSO talked about the future of the Olney green-box site.
The county just signed a new 10-year lease with the Montana Department of Transportation for the site east of Olney. The lease cost increased nearly 10-fold, from $250 to $2,000 annually for the first five years, because the state is mandated to increase revenue from its lands, he said.
“They’d love to see us go away, but they’re not looking to kick us out,” Prunty said.
He’s working with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation for a potential new Olney-area green-box site, but that, too, would be on state land.
Brenneman asked if buying private property was an option, but Prunty said most private property owners don’t want to have their land used for a garbage-collection site and would rather hold out for better offers.
Land in the Olney area is “spendy” these days because Canadians are buying up property in that area, Dupont noted.
The county has a 90-day “out clause” that would allow it to drop the current state site if a better spot could be found, Prunty said. A three- to four-acre plot would be ideal, he added.
About 3 to 4 percent of the county’s garbage is collected at the Olney site.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com