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MOUNT VERNON — Knox Pages readers have become increasingly vocal about the difficulty they’re having dropping off brush and debris at the county compost facility on Thayer Road.
One reader said, “We could only back up from the road enough to empty our loads. Yard waste was backed up to the fence and gate area. I suspect that the recent windstorm has increased the amount of drop-offs, but this overload of the site needs to be corrected.”
The county commissioners are receiving the calls, too, and are well aware of the overload.
“It’s overrun with material, which we can’t keep up,” County Administrator Jason Booth said on Tuesday. “It’s kind of like if you build it they will come. It is very popular with the public.”
“We’re trying to figure out how to address it, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
County administrator Jason Booth
Booth said people dumping things right inside the gate and bringing large amounts of material compound the problem.
The contract with Green Machine calls for the company to be on site several days a week and push back the pile. When the pile gets too big, the company grinds up the limbs.
“There are a lot of issues, and I don’t have any solution for it right now,” Booth said.
“The easiest solution probably is that we shut it down except for a few days a week. That would allow the contractor that we hired to get in there and actually work the site.”
‘If you build it, they will come’
Each county in the Delaware-Knox-Marion-Morrow Solid Waste District has a compost program. Knox County is the only unmanned program.
Previously, the county opened the facility two or three days each week in the summer. Then the county installed an electronic gate to eliminate the need for someone to manually open and close the facility each day.
“The public loves that, but it means we’ve never stopped getting material,” Booth said.
It also means costs are starting to climb.
Booth said the county used to grind the tree limbs once and sometimes twice a year. Each grinding costs about $30,000.
DKMM pays for one grinding.
“Last year we spent almost $200,000 at that compost site out of county money trying to keep it in operation,” Booth said.
The mulch is free, but Booth acknowledged that residents sometimes have difficulty loading it themselves into a truck or trailer.
The county faces liability issues if a county employee loads it and damages a vehicle.
“We don’t get material out of there as fast as it comes in. We’ve tried to get some of that hauled off, but then we have to pay to get the material hauled off site,” Booth said.
Commercial businesses compound the problem
Residents are only supposed to drop off limbs 12 inches in diameter or smaller.
Commissioner Barry Lester noted that based on the size of some of the trees, commercial businesses are dropping off trees.
“People are pulling in and they’re not going any further than the gate to dump stuff, but there are also logs out there that are way bigger than they should be,” Lester said.
Booth said the county has always allowed local contractors to drop off material.
“The commissioners felt like they were doing work for county citizens, so they could take the material from the county residents’ homes. But they bring in oftentimes large amounts of material,” he explained.
“We have caught a few contractors from another county going in there. It’s not rampant, but we have caught them.”
Booth learned recently that the City of Mount Vernon takes its material to Thayer Road.
“We’ve had a meeting with the city, but they don’t know what they would do with material if they can’t take it there after storms,” he said.
Lester suggested the city could help financially with facility costs.
“If we just stop allowing commercial, that sounds easy, but then you have to have a way to enforce it. If you have someone manning it, and you charge commercial a certain amount, it only pays for the person manning it,” Booth said.
Exploring potential solutions
Booth said some counties charge businesses to drop off debris.
“The problem with that is then you have to pay somebody to man the site,” Booth said. “So, I don’t necessarily think maybe that’s a great solution.”
Having a private business operate the site is complicated because of EPA regulations with the site being a former landfill.
According to Booth, Delaware County contracts with a private business, and county residents take their material to that business.
“When you show up, you have an ID you’re a county resident, and you can drop your material off for free. If you’re a business, they weigh in and they charge you,” Booth said. “The county pays maybe $60,000,000 or $80,000 a year.”
Booth will explore possible solutions with DKMM Director Jenna Hicks.
