They hemmed, hawed, negotiated, accused and stalled, but eventually Leflore County supervisors approved a new management contract for the county landfill Monday.
An official for Waste Connections, Marty Dunkin, called the deal the best he had ever seen for a municipality because the county won’t have to pay to dump its own garbage.
The vote passed 3-2. Phil Wolfe, Preston Ratliff and Robert Moore voted for it, and Wayne Self and Robert Collins voted against it.
The major points are this:
nWaste Connections will continue to operate the U.S. 49 South landfill for 20 more years. Its contract was set to expire in 2015; the new contract extends it for 16 years beyond that, until 2031.
nLeflore County gets free disposal of 8,100 tons of municipal waste per year, saving it about $200,000 annually. The county currently produces less than 5,000 tons per year. If it goes above 8,100 tons, it will be charged half of the lowest rate charged to any another municipality that dumps there.
• The county agrees to pay for closing the landfill if Waste Connections won’t. That would happen only in the case of major environmental violations.
• Waste Connections will turn pits into public access fishing ponds within a year of finishing digging from them.
nBoth the county and Waste Connections will have hauling sites on the premises.
• Both sides agree to drop two pending lawsuits.
• They’ll go to arbitration to settle what Waste Connections owes the county for fill dirt taken from pits.
Waste Connections has run the landfill since 2003, when Santek transferred operation to it.
The county has been paying dumping fees of between $27 and $30 per ton.
Now it won’t pay for dumping, and it will get between $1 and $1.50 per ton when others dump there.
Dunkin, division vice president for Waste Connections, said the deal works for his company only because of its length. The longer contract allows it to offer more attractive rates to potential customers and thus increase its volume, he said.
Waste Connections has 10 to 12 municipalities under contract to use the Leflore County landfill and draws from about a 60-mile radius, Dunkin said.
He said he’s seen hundreds of deals with municipalities, and “this is the best one I’ve seen for a community. I’ve never seen one close.” Every other county in Mississippi that owns a landfill has to pay to dump, he said.
Dunkin said there’s been turmoil between the county and Waste Connections since he arrived on the scene, but he said he wants to build a better relationship with the community.
Collins said he drives by the landfill daily and sees only three pieces of equipment on the hill with about five employees working. Waste Connections is making millions off it, he said.
“It just don’t seem feasible to have that big ugly thing out there on 49, and that’s all we’re getting out there is a host fee,” he said.
Self, the board president, said Mississippi Valley State University is paying $40 per ton or more to dump its garbage. He said he feared Waste Connections would hike the fees it’s charging the university and others to make up for what it’s losing from the county.
Dunkin promised to look into how much Valley is paying.
Moore said he wasn’t comfortable with the potential to raise the height of the landfill because he feared it would spread out and endanger a nearby highway and railroad.
John Brunini, a Jackson attorney for Waste Connections, offered to strike the option for such a “vertical expansion” from the contract, which the board did. He said growth will most likely be lateral anyway.
He said closure is decades away and that there will most likely still be room at the landfill when the contract expires in 2031.
The county’s attorney on the issue, Jerry Hafter of Phelps Dunbar in Jackson, said the county’s deal compared favorably to municipally owned landfills in Washington, Madison and Hinds counties.
Board Attorney Joyce Chiles pointed out that supervisors had already approved the contract two weeks ago pending having it written down. Negotiations had been ongoing since November.
“I want these folks to be partners. Sounds like they’re good people,” Moore said. “I just don’t want to be there out on a limb, either.”
Self said he wanted to delay the vote a week to discuss Valley’s dumping fees.
Dunkin said that issue had nothing to do with the county’s contract and added he couldn’t guarantee the offer would still be available then.
After more than an hour of discussion, a weary Wolfe said Waste Connections had answered every question, including during two previous days of meetings.
“I don’t know what anybody thinks we can make off the landfill. If somebody knows, tell me. I think they’re ready to move forward. ... This indecision is going to kill us, and I don’t know why,” he said.
Wolfe then made the motion to approve the contract, which Ratliff seconded.
• The board met in a closed session with the economic development triumvirate of Angela Curry, Bill Crump and Allan Hammons to discuss selling 200 acres to 300 acres in the Greenwood-Leflore Industrial Park to an unnamed biofuels company from South Carolina.
The board authorized the industrial board to move forward with negotiations and to include a reverter clause in the contract.
The company plans to make a $105 million capital investment and create 70 jobs initially with expectation to double in size within a year, according to Curry.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
