Solid waste meeting will cost county $17,000

Bigfork Eagle

Flathead County will spend at least another $60,000 — including $17,680 for one meeting — to study what to do with the trash collection sites in the county.

The county recently received a cost quote of roughly $17,000 from SWT Engineering of Ontario, Calif., to perform additional work on the firm’s 2008 study of Flathead County’s green box trash collection sites.

The county’s solid waste board met April 1 in Kalispell to consider the status of the county green box sites. 

CH2M Hill and SWT Engineering are providing consulting services for comprehensive planning of the green box sites in Flathead County. In 2008, CH2M Hill provided engineering services to SWT for the development of Flathead County’s 2009 Strategic Report. CH2M Hill’s services at the time focused on the strategic evaluation and service options of green box sites.

The fee estimate for CH2M Hill’s additional engineering services is divided into two areas; a public meeting and a “strategic planning update” for the green box sites.

The cost for the “kickoff and public/stakeholder meeting” is $17,680.

The cost for the “strategic planning update” is $59,348.

The original report organized the existing 12 green box sites into five regional sectors representing the

major service areas of the county, and included: (1) Northwest – Olney; (2) Southwest – Kila and Marion; (3)South?Central – Lakeside, Somers, Bigfork and Creston; (4) Northeast – Nyack, Denny’s and Essex; and (5) North?Central – Coram and Columbia Falls. Currently, there are 11 green box sites.

Kila and Marion have been consolidated into the West Corridor site. Olney is still open and services the

northwest sector. Lakeside, Somers, Bigfork and Creston are still open and make up the South?Central sector.

Denny’s, Essex and Nyack will be consolidated into an East Corridor site in the spring of 2014, and North?

Central is still serviced by Columbia Falls and Coram.

Implementing the timeline spelled out in the report was delayed as a result of the general economic downturn around the time the report was published, as well as from public and stakeholder input to reconsider closure.

The report recommended closing the Bigfork green box site, and having Bigfork residents and businesses take their trash to the collection site in Somers on Montana Highway 82.

The Flathead County Solid Waste District is now requesting a more comprehensive planning study for the green box sites.

Paul Mutascio, president of the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork, has worked to prevent the closure of the Bigfork trash-collection site. He says trash collection is an essential service to the Bigfork community, and closing the sites should not be based solely on cost to the county. Mutascio said he received a letter from the county in March 2013 that outlined the imminent closure of the Bigfork trash-collection site.

Mutascio said he is unclear on what is actually being considered at the April 1 meeting. “We’ve been having this discussion for over a year and I don’t know where it’s at,” he said.

The solid waste board is appointed by the county commissioners. Mutascio said he recommends having the board members be elected officials who have accountability to the public.