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.
Local News
Meeting set to discuss Cherokee County landfill closure
- Local News
-
-
Mo. Legislature officially ends its 2012 session
Missouri's annual legislative session has officially come to a close.
-
Strong to severe storms forecast for Joplin region
Storms developing across the central and southern plains this afternoon are expected to migrate into the Joplin region this evening.
-
Economic-development strategies posed for Joplin region
More than 30 people shared ideas Wednesday on ways to promote economic development in the seven counties that are participating in the Joplin Regional Prosperity Initiative.
-
Kansas primary filing deadline near
Kansas candidates have until noon Friday for file for county offices in the Aug. 7 primary.
-
Date set to reintroduce rare beetle in Missouri
An endangered species of beetle will be reintroduced in southwest Missouri on June 5.
-
Senators: Missouri River flooding unifying moment
Two U.S. senators who symbolize disagreements between upstream and downstream states over management of the Missouri River say last year’s historic flooding was a unifying moment.
-
First-ever electricity for parts of India
The solar power company SunEdison is launching a program to get electricity for the first time to more than two dozen villages in India.
-
Couple 'scoop out' ice cream business from the past
When 3-year-old Brynlee Rabel tried coconut ice cream for the first time Tuesday, it was love at first taste. “She got the vanilla, but when she tasted my coconut ice cream she had to have it,” said Kayleigh Daugherty, a Joplin resident who wanted Brynlee to share the same experience she had as a little girl when she visited Anderson’s Ice Cream.
-
Missouri National Guard releases records involving soldiers who looted from Wal-Mart
The Missouri National Guard has released records confirming that four soldiers were disciplined for taking merchandise from the ruins of a Wal-Mart store in Joplin one day after the tornado that devastated the city a year ago.
-
Joplin school board awards contract to complete demolition of JHS
The Joplin Board of Education on Tuesday night accepted a bid for finishing tornado-related demolition at the high school.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Mo. Legislature officially ends its 2012 session
