By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

COLUMBUS, Kan. — A meeting is set for today at the Cherokee County Health Department for discussion of plans to close a landfill in the county.

The meeting — scheduled for 1 p.m. at the health department, 110 E. Walnut St. — was organized by the Cherokee County Local Environmental Protection Program and the Solid Waste Advisory Committee.

Carl Hayes, chairman of the solid waste committee, said Republic Services has decided not to close the landfill north of Columbus until sometime in mid-2010. The original plan called for closing the landfill by the end of this year.

“They’re going to fill the landfill to capacity” before closing it, Hayes said. “I think it gives us a little more time to regroup.”

Jeff Kintzle, area president of Republic Services, and Pete Forst, landfill manager, are scheduled to be at the meeting to answer questions. The company is based in Phoenix, Ariz.

“It’s going to happen,” Hayes said of the closure. “I just hope we can get through it with the least possible impact on the county.”

Hayes said his concern is with the environment.

“The thing I’m worried about is increased illegal dumping in the county,” he said.

Columbus City Administrator Evan Capron said closing the landfill will have a big impact on his town.

The company’s plan after the closure is to haul the county’s trash to a transfer station in Galena and transport it from there to a landfill near Lamar, Mo.

Columbus hauls its own trash to the landfill north of town, Capron said. He said that if the town is required to haul trash to Galena, it would require running two trucks instead of one and adding three employees. There also is the additional fuel cost to consider.

“We’ll have to increase the cost to customers to pick up their trash,” Capron said.

Capron said he wasn’t aware that the decision had been made to delay the landfill closure. He said that will give the town a little more time to plan.