McMinnville officials question county’s garbage policy
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In short, McMinnville city officials have initiated public discourse regarding their concerns about what some said are inequities in tipping fees between McMinnville and other local municipalities.
Although officials have made mention of it before, McMinnville Public Works Director Bill Brock and Alderman Patti Nunley took complaints by members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen one step further and attended a recent county Health and Welfare Committee meeting.
The city takes its garbage to the city’s transfer station, pays fees for disposal and charges residents accordingly to provide that service. Brock and Nunley complained other local municipalities were being offered free garbage disposal by the county, while McMinnville is not afforded the same service.
“If that’s the case and it’s being continued, the city would like the same option that’s being offered to other cities within Warren County,” Brock told commissioners.
County Executive Kenneth Rogers, also in attendance, said city residents are welcome to take household bags to the convenience center located on Fairgrounds Road, while committee members said the county simply could not take the city’s trash in mass.
“We have confronted that and if the city wants to dump at these convenience sites,” Rogers said, “they’re more than welcome to, but you will have it either in garbage cans or garbage bags. And that’s the agreement that Centertown, Morrison, or Viola is going to do. You might want to bring it up in front of this board, but that’s what we’ve looked at.
“So if it’s in garbage cans, now that’s not industrial waste or anything like that. It will be household garbage, and it will be in containers, not trucks, but in garbage cans or garbage bags,” Rogers added.
Committee member Herb Wright questioned Brock on the city’s intention.
“Is the city preparing on going out of the garbage business?” Wright asked.
“No sir, we’re going to stay in the garbage business,” Brock said. “The tipping fee is the main concern.”
Nunley later said she does not reasonably expect the county to accept McMinnville’s trash in one dumping, but said she believes policies should be applied equally.
“Realistically, we don’t probably expect them to have our big trucks come out there and unload at their convenience center, but as it stands now, each and every taxpayer in Warren County – me, you and everybody else – is subsidizing other municipalities and also any private haulers that happen to be in the county because they’re taking all the garbage those people collect free of charge. And if they don’t want to make it fair, then we think they ought to take ours,” she said.
“But in fact, what we’re really asking is that they simply find some way to make those people responsible for their part in it. And we’re looking for equality, for parity,” she added.
City Administrator Herb Llewellyn added the city spends about $125,000 per year on shipping and about $250,000 on disposal and noted the possibility to reduce citizens’ costs exists, if some bagged trash were accepted by the county because the city’s disposal costs would be reduced.
When contacted about McMinnville’s move, Morrison officials declined to make comment since they were unaware of any problems due to the fact McMinnville officials had not contacted them directly before going to the County Commission.
It’s unclear what McMinnville hopes to accomplish with this move. When asked directly if they wanted other municipalities to begin paying tipping fees to the county, Brock was quick to reply:
“We didn’t say that. That would be up to the County Commission.”
Discussions indicated three probable outcomes: garbage pickup for citizens in smaller municipalities could cease, tipping fees could be assessed for those smaller communities, or the county could accept some trash from McMinnville as a city.
Nunley said she doesn’t know what the outcome will be, but added she thought it was important to bring the issue to the attention of the Health and Welfare Committee, which contains some new county commissioners.