Board resigns

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
The entire five-person Central Weston County Solid Waste District Board resigned on July 2, handing their keys and paperwork to the county commissioners during their regular meeting. The board consisted of Joe Wood Jr., president; Cindy Crabtree, Joseph Cummings, Bert Sutherland and Ed Quinones. 
According to Wood, the resignation was sparked by the commissioners’ lack of help in solving issues with the road leading to the landfill, which is slated for closure later this year. In the lease agreement signed between the commissioners and the state at the time the district was created, Wood said, the county agreed to maintain a four-seasons road leading to the landfill. 
Wood told the commissioners at their June 18 meeting that he believed the road was a county road and the commissioners were responsible for it. At that meeting, Commissioner Marty Ertman said that the road was never officially designated a county road in any legal aspect and that the commissioners were told by the Department of Environmental Quality that they were no longer responsible for aiding the district. 
The commissioners, at that time, told Wood to contact Road and Bridge Supervisor Rick Williams to obtain a cost estimate for the road repairs. 
In response to that conversation, Wood, Crabtree and Sutherland attended the July 2 meeting and resigned from the board. 
“You will have to get a whole new board,” Crabtree said. “The keys have been turned into you so you can get in the building, but I don’t know how you are going to get in there with the roads getting in there gone.” 
She said that it was now up to the commissioners to figure out what to do. 
“You are going to have to get a board that can swim. I don’t swim well. I don’t know what to do for you, and our hands are tied,” Crabtree told the commissioners. 
She also told the commissioners that despite board members’ effort “to make it work,” they were tired of trying. 
“You have a really nice transfer station that is going to be sitting there” Crabtree said at the meeting. “I don’t know what you have in mind or what you are going to do, but it is already up. You would just have to load the garbage up and take it somewhere.” 
The transfer station was built in Osage in preparation of the closure of the landfill, which is slated for later this year. Upton’s landfill is also scheduled for closure this year. Newcastle’s landfill is permitted through 2022. 
Earlier this year, Newcastle’s city engineer, Mike Moore, said he hoped that the Weston County Solid Waste District would have an operating
landfill by the 2022 closure of the city’s facility but that the solid waste district board had run into issues with the land they planned to purchase and plans were stalled. 
Crabtree suggested that the county look into merging the county’s two solid waste districts, noting that the Weston County Solid Waste District could use the Osage transfer station instead of starting over and that the location was central for county residents. 
“There are 40 acres out there,” Crabtree said. 
Wood said that the county is already the leaseholder on the property. 
The district does not have a scale, she said, and charges by the number of bags or load size. 
Ertman said that there is a process for dissolving the district or to merge it with the other. She said that the district is its own entity and that its agreements would be with the district and not the county. 
Commissioner Tracy Hunt said that the board should have informed the commissioners of their intentions, especially since the resignation was signed on June 26. 
“Apparently you didn’t let anyone know your intentions, including the attorney,” Hunt said.
Berger told the commissioners later in the meeting that he knew very little about the subject but was concerned about potential county liability regarding the agreement with the state. He said that the county’s priority is to pass a resolution in order to avoid default with the state. 
The commissioners instructed Berger to analyze the situation and come up with possible solutions. The commissioners plan to set aside time at their July 16 meeting for the matter, and Clerk Becky Hadlock will advertise for interested individuals to submit applications for the now vacant board.