Even if the changes brought in an $800,000 revenue stream, creating a new convenience center at the landfill and shutting down all others might be too radical for Newton County residents.

That’s what Commissioner Nancy Schulz, District 3, said at the Newton County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday night to one of the options county staff recommended for moving forward with decisions about solid waste disposal.

Lloyd Kerr, Planning and Development Director, presented the staff’s recommendations on solid waste disposal, and told the board that the staff favored much of what had been included in the Solid Waste Citizen’s Committee.

“We put a lot of weight into the citizen committee’s recommendations,” he said. “We also looked at Douglas and Walton County as basis for the recommendation.”

The Committee’s recommendations included a Newton County Solid Waste Authority, similar to the existing Newton County Water and Sewage Authority; phasing out convenience centers and moving towards curbside pickup of all waste; separating out recyclable materials to reduce waste load on landfill capacity; and redevelopment of the landfill for public use such as a regional park.

Kerr said the less radical option, creating a revenue stream of approximately $380,000, would be to create a center at the landfill and close all but four of the others. The four centers that would remain open would be at Stone Road, Oak Hill, Adam Circle and Stewart Road. Currently, there are six other recycling centers. They are on Piper Road/Highway 36, Covington ByPass/Flat Shoals Road, Highway 212/Highway 162, Hazelbrand Road, McGiboney Road and Dial Mill Road. 

“All but a few people will fall within a five-mile radius of the convenience center,” Kerr said. For those few, a center would be within five-and-a-half miles. “We’re probably one of the very few counties in the state that provides the service we provide.

The staff recommendation also included:

• continuing to accept recyclables at the convenience centers at no charge, while moving towards curbside pickup,
• charging $5 per dump truck full of household waste, and $36 a ton for waste over 350 pounds,
• requiring household waste to be bagged in county-sold bags--$1.50 per bag was the suggestion,
• charging a fee per tire at the landfill,
• manning centers by county employees, and
• implementing these changes by Feb. 1.

“We looked at the most efficient implementation,” he said, referring to the board’s charge at their retreat in October to make recommendations on how to stop the $2 million a year loss at the convenience centers, create an income stream and reduce the landfill footprint.

Kerr said as much as one-third of the waste the county deals with, comes from outside of Newton County. “Everything [disposed of] would be paid for.”  

He reminded the board that $1.5 million would be spent annually for the next seven years on remediation for the land and air pollution, and another $500,000 annually set aside for clean up when the landfill finally closes. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) mandated corrective action to address contamination from old, unlined cells and replacing them with new, lined cells.

Kerr said staff recommended abandoning the idea of issuing and renewing stickers, which would allow residents to use the convenience centers. Enforcement, he said, was problematic. “We’re still likely to run into issues with commercial people dumping in our landfill,” he said.

Commissioner Lanier Sims, District 2, asked the management team if it could draw up a request for quote (RFQ) to be sent to six or seven companies. “I’ve talk to several companies and every company had creative solution--a combination of curbside pickup and convenience centers,” he said.

He said he would like to see what companies could do immediately with the convenience centers.

In response, Aaron Wadley, Director of Transportation, said the county staff has been in touch with Harbin Engineering. The firm, he said, “is almost working full-time on landfill issues for Newton County.”

Kerr said if the county wants to explore establishing a solid waste authority, staff could draw up a Request for Information (RFI). A RFQ or Request for Proposal (RFP) would be more appropriate if the BOC decided solid waste management in the county should be privatized.

“If we want to explore the solid waste authority, isn’t privatization going in a different direction?” Schulz asked. "We need to clarify how we're going to create a $1 million revenue stream. Part of our budget had that revenue stream. We need to move towards a true enterprise fund and solid waste authority."

Commissioner Levie Maddox, District 5, said if the county moved to privatize solid waste disposal, he had voted in early October to lease two more “roll-off” trucks for five years at a cost of $285,759.60.

He said that he had voted two weeks ago for the county to stop accepting tires at the convenience centers, but he was reconsidering. “I think it might have been a wrong decision,” he said, adding he had just taken six tires he found on his property to the landfill.

Commissioner J. C. Henderson, District 3, opposed the closing of any of the convenience centers, saying they had been created at the request of county citizens. “It wasn’t the board,” he said. “I think [the citizens] should have the right to comment.”

He also asked what the county planned to do with tires dumped on the side of the road. “In my opinion, we’re creating a problem we’ll ultimately have to pay for later on.”

Maddox said the BOC would need a work session independent of a regular board meeting, and asked staff to let the board know if they could be ready for a session on Monday, Nov. 16.