EDITORIAL: Time to work together for a transfer station solution

Posted 2/16/12

City officials could have done more to work with neighbors throughout the months-long process and to communicate their efforts to assuage neighbors’ concerns.

Some commissioners could have tried harder to view the proposal from an unbiased …

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EDITORIAL: Time to work together for a transfer station solution

Posted

With last week’s denial by the Park County Commission of a special use permit for the city of Powell’s planned site for a garbage transfer station, both governing entities now need to work together to find another solution.

From the outside looking in, it appears both could have done a better job of working toward a cooperative outcome of last week’s hearing.

City officials could have done more to work with neighbors throughout the months-long process and to communicate their efforts to assuage neighbors’ concerns.

Some commissioners could have tried harder to view the proposal from an unbiased perspective, setting aside their personal feelings about the need for a transfer station.

That being said, it is time to move forward.

The county has offered a site across from the current landfill on Road 5 as a potential site for the transfer station. That would seem to be a good location, but it has some serious shortfalls: It doesn’t have access to three-phase power, and the grade of the property is too steep. Both problems would be costly to fix.

Commissioner Tim French last week suggested using state consensus money to help the city bring three-phase power to the site. If sufficient money is available, that could be a workable solution, provided the problems with the grade also could be addressed without straining the budget for the project.

However, it is important to note that using consensus money to bring three-phase electricity to the property would take that money from another project on a long list of other projects waiting for funding. With state and local budgets getting tighter, that list continues to lengthen.

Another very real concern was voiced by rural resident Mac Black, who asked the County Commission to work with the city to make it possible for county residents to use the transfer station as well. He noted that all of eastern Park County, not just the city of Powell, will face the same problem of what to do with their trash when Powell’s landfill closes to household trash in September.

We urge city leaders and county commissioners to work together to reach a solution that will work for everyone, and to make it as economically feasible as possible.

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