HANK DEWALD /HERALD STAFF WRITER

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HALIFAX - The Halifax County Board of Commissioners took the first steps toward building a solid waste transfer station which when completed, should put the county in a much better bargaining position when negotiating contracts with solid waste collection and distribution companies.

“When we had to recently renegotiate our solid waste collection and distribution contract, it became readily apparent that we're not in a position to negotiate because the only transfer station in the county was owned by one of the people bidding,” Board Chairman Gene Minton told the board.

Minton explained that he was not happy with the new contract and asked County Manager Tony Brown to collect data on how much it costs the cities, towns and municipalities in the county to pay for waste collection.

Brown's data clearly showed costs for collection were out of line with what other municipalities were paying outside of Halifax County.

Assistant Director of Public Utilities Gwen Matthews, introduced Peter Scheer, an engineer with Richardson, Smith, Gardener & Associates, who explained to the board the steps toward permitting and building a transfer station for Halifax County.

Scheer told the board Minton had “hit the nail on the head” on the importance of having a transfer station in addition to a landfill in order to negotiate a fair contract.

“It's all about maintaining control and having more control of your solid waste costs,” Scheer said. “The industry, with the increase in fuel costs, has really seen a dramatic increase in costs and you guys are certainly not alone in that boat.”

Scheer said he had compared other counties with their own transfer stations and those that, like Halifax, do not own their own. Those that did not own their own stations had costs in the $45 to $50 per ton range, which is what Halifax is now paying. That is much higher than the counties that own their own facilities.

Scheer explained there are four steps to accomplish building a transfer station in the county. The first step is a ‘siting' study which identifies the best location for such a facility. He said Halifax was in a good position, owning plenty of land at the existing landfill and at several collection sites around the county.

A traffic study, which is required by the new solid waste management act, would be the next step. Scheer said that step is somewhat optional and would only be required if the Department of Transportation thought traffic flow would be adversely impacted.

The next step is the design and permit application and submittal. “That's basically the elements that the state division of waste management will be looking for. Those designs include site plans, building plans, operation plans and those sort of things,” Scheer said.

The fourth step is taking a quick look at what the costs would be to the county to purchase equipment and hire personnel to operate the facility and their own collection and distribution system. Since the county is not interested in collecting waste themselves, this step should be relatively simple Scheer said.

Scheer put the cost of the required study at $50,000, but said it could be substantially less. There is a $5,000 permit fee that is required by the state along with the application.

Scheer said it should take approximately two years to get the station up and running. “That's really a short time, considering all the work that has to be done, but I would encourage you to think in terms of three years, from start to finish.”

As Scheer's presentation came to an end the commissioners began asking questions. “I have real heartburn about not putting this study out for bids. You're talking about $50,000 and we've seen before that we've gotten better deals that way,” Commissioner Rives Manning said.

Minton agreed with Manning, but then pointed out the cost comparison study which showed the county incurred an additional $542,487 and that does not include the monthly fuel surcharges the present solid waste contract allows, which was over $7,000 in July.

Mathews explained that the present fuel surcharges are any cost over $2.65 per gallon of diesel fuel, which has been selling for well over $4 per gallon this year.

“We make them give us a copy of their fuel costs and we're keeping track of them monthly,” Mathews told the board. Minton quickly totaled that up in his head, “That's $84,000 a year, plus $542,000 extra. We're going to pay close to a million dollars more than we paid the year before?”

Mathews said it was actually worse than that. “The total last year we paid $1,605,508 and this year we're paying $2,147,996. Plus the fuel surcharges.”

Minton said he feels that once the county has a permit in hand, they can go back and renegotiate that contract. Commissioner James Pierce weighed in saying the county should only contract the first three steps since the county has no interest in collecting the waste themselves.

After a 10-minute discussion on just what the county wants to actually have studied and permitted, the board agreed to put the study up for bid and obtain the permits to build a transfer station, which will, according to Minton, give the county a much better bargaining position now, even before a facility is actually built.