The three day budget hearings for Habersham County occurred the last week of March, and among the groups presenting their proposed budgets was the County Landfill Director Laurie Church.
Church presented her requests for FY2024’s budget at the budget hearings. In her requests, she included adding eight positions, including two full time landfill equipment operators, five full time recycling coordinators and one part time to full time recycling coordinator. By adding these positions, Church hopes to extend the hours of the recycling center.
In February, The Northeast Georgian reported on two local men who offered their services to help the county with the landfill problem.
“We were approached a couple of months ago by Tim Loggins and Doug Oliver, two citizens in our community,” County Manager Alicia Vaughn said. “They own a piece of machinery and wanted to make a presentation to the county to discuss its potential use as a way of extending the life at the landfill. This machinery acts as a crusher, and it can crush C&D and turn it into a pellet that can be used in landscaping … They suggested they could take C&D debris out of current cells at the landfill and crush it into this much smaller form, so it ultimately takes up less space.”
While this option is one that the county is potentially interested in, there are still other steps before they can make a final decision.
During a meeting between Church, Vaughn, Loggins and Oliver, the four discussed the potential for partnership.
“We explained we thought the idea had potential, but we needed to get guidance from the BOC on how they wish to consider any options for extending the life of our landfill. If this process were to be considered, the county would issue an RFP and accept formal proposals from any vendors interested in providing the service in order to be fair and transparent,” Vaughn said.
With the initial budget hearings complete, the county is still looking at other options before moving full steam ahead with Loggins’ and Oliver’s proposal.
“At this time, we are working with our landfill engineer and consultant to look at options to accept ideas and present them to the BOC at some future date,” Vaughn said.