Sour words about solid waste

GARWOOD - Kootenai County cut the ribbon on a new rural solid waste collection site near Rathdrum on Monday, but not everyone is happy about it.

The new facility was built to consolidate two collection sites located on property the county did not own: the Garwood and Twin Lakes collection sites.

According to Solid Waste Director Cathy Mayer, planning for the consolidation started in 2011 when the county commissioners adopted a "rural system strategy" to address long-range planning for rural solid waste.

"We are basically trying to consolidate some of these sites on county property," she said, adding many of the rural dump sites are on public right of way, which could be affected by future road construction.

Prior to the construction of the new Chilco site, the county maintained 14 rural collection sites, but only three of them were on county-owned property.

The new site near the intersection of Chilco Road and Ramsey Road will open 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, and be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. The Garwood and Twin Lakes sites will permanently close at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Mayer said.

"The Chilco site is halfway between the Garwood and Twin Lakes sites," she said.

Garwood resident Don Bradway isn't happy about the move. He said his neighbors aren't happy either.

"We've been using this site for decades and now they just decide to move it five to six miles up the road," he said. "It's not as accessible for us."

Bradway said he just learned about the move a week ago when the county posted a sign at the Garwood site announcing the change.

Mayer said the county has advertised the move several times and held public meetings to let affected residents know when and where the new collection site would be located.

Bradway said he apparently missed those notifications.

"I don't remember seeing anything about that," he said. "If they did that, they should have put up a big sign like they did last week announcing the closure."

He said they should have done better due diligence with the users of those sites before deciding to close them.

"This just sucks," he said. "People are angry about this."

Mayer said the county wants to consolidate two more sites in the Rose Lake area.

"The solid waste department is currently working on options and communicating with local citizens prior to finalizing any plans," Mayer said in a press release.