Dale Commission talks landfill

Changing the day that the Dale County Landfill is open four times a year was a topic of discussion at the Dale County Commission meeting April 27.

Changing the open-for-business day from the last Monday of each quarter to the last Saturday of each quarter was a suggestion made by Dale County Commissioner Frankie Wilson.

Wilson expressed concern that with the recent sale of Rose Hill Landfill, the only other landfill in Dale County, dumping prices will increase.

“What made me bring this up is that due to some changes with the other landfill in Midland City we need to relook at when we open our landfill to the public,” Wilson told those attending the commission meeting. “One of the things that we know that’s going to happen is the price to dump will go up.

“What I would like suggest, so that it would be more beneficial to our constituents, would be to change that day from the last Monday of each quarter to the last Saturday of each quarter,” he added. “Most people work on Mondays. I’d like to change that day to Saturday. I get a lot of calls about the landfill.”

Dale County Engineer Derek Brewer said that he will research the feasibility of opening on a Saturday, to include whether a weigh master will be available, and report back to the commission.

Dale County Commission Chairman Steve McKinnon asked Brewer to also present the commission with an alternate date to hold the county’s free dumping day, which was postponed due to inclement weather. Dale County was among the counties participating in the statewide “Don’t Drop it on Alabama” April 24.

There will be free dumping from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. for Dale County residents—not businesses—on the rescheduled day at the landfill.

The Dale County Landfill, located at Bivins Drive, off of County Road 30 five miles south of Ozark, has been “mothballed” since 2015 after the commission heard a report from a consultant who outlined options for closing the Dale County Construction and Demolition Landfill.

The commission had retained a consultant in hopes to eliminate the financial losses currently incurred by the county in operating the landfill. They expressed interest in the option that called for cutting the landfill’s hours of operation to a minimal level.  “You don’t get out of the landfill business, but you restrict the hours of operation,” the consultant had advised them at a February 2015 commission meeting. “You restrict operating hours so 98 percent of the time there’s nobody at the site, the gates are closed and you don’t have to have equipment there for anything except to respond to an emergency. You eliminate a lot of your expenses.”

“Over the years, the amount of business we have there has deteriorated to where it’s basically Ozark and two or three other customers,” then Dale County Commission Chairman Mark Blankenship said at that time. “We’re losing on average between $55,000 and $60,000 a year.”

At a Level Plains City Council meeting in December 2015, McKinnon told the council that “mothballing” the county landfill was a less expensive option for the county. “It costs about $100,000 a year for a permanent closure,” McKinnon said at that time.

At the commission meeting April 27, Dale County Commissioner Charles “Chic” Gary suggested that if the commission changes the open day at the Dale County Landfill from the last Monday of each quarter to the last Saturday of each quarter that its use be monitored. “If there is little or no use, we should move it back to the last Monday of the quarter,” he said. “There is no use in the county expending funds for the convenience of somebody who is not going to use it.”

The next meeting of the Dale County Commission is Tuesday, May 25, at the Dale County Government Building in Ozark. A work session begins at 10 a.m. and is followed immediately by a voting meeting. Both meetings are open to the public.