Board meetings of the Carroll County Solid Waste District seldom attract much attention, but the parking lot of the CCSWD office in Berryville filled up before the start of the Dec. 10 board meeting.
Word had spread on social media that compulsory trash collection would be on the agenda, and some 20 spectators and a big dog lined the walls of the board room. Board members at the table included County Judge David Writer and the mayors of the county’s four incorporated cities.
Board Chair and Berryville Mayor Tim McKinney opened the floor for public comments at the outset. Nathaniel Mann, with Osage Trash Service, had heard that if the CCSWD mandated county-wide collection, existing private haulers would be granted franchise areas. Mann said this would make him an employee of the CCSWD, even though he would still have to maintain his own truck and carry his own insurance.
McKinney said that franchise arrangement was discussed as a way to benefit small haulers, who would have less travel in their collections. In addition, the CCSWD would handle billing and signing up new customers.
Mike Mann said the 11 a.m. start time for the meeting limited the number of people who attended, although the board room could only have accommodated a few more people. He said county residents live outside of cities because they do not want to have such services forced on them. Another question arose whether a group of county residents would be able to share a dumpster.
McKinney lowered the temperature when he said the CCSWD had no plans to force service on anyone. “If the people of the county don’t want this, it’s not our job to do it,” he said, although he noted that state laws authorize the board to make that decision. He further explained that the board had discussed county-wide collection as one possible solution to mounting problems in solid waste disposal. “We’re not trying to make more money,” he said. “We just want to provide reliable service as cheaply as we can.”
Trash service is compulsory in cities, and McKinney said the cities have been subsidizing rural trash collection. The district has lost money the past three years, and McKinney said raising rates for rural customers might cause more of them to drop the service, further exacerbating the problems of illegal dump sites.
Even after McKinney made clear that the board would not impose mandatory rural collection, some in attendance continued to object. As the complaints became repetitive, McKinney segued into cautionary words about the near future of solid waste collection. The only landfill within 100 miles of Carroll County will soon close, and every additional mile to a landfill adds costs.
McKinney explained the impossibility of taking “a quarter-million-dollar truck, two men, and driving to Possum Trot to pick up eight customers.” The tires on that truck only last two months on county roads, McKinney said. Although the district has retained some quality drivers, turnover continues to be a problem, even though drivers’ hourly wages have risen by four dollars since the Covid pandemic.
Recycling mostly pays for itself, and does not make money for the district, except by reducing the total amount of solid waste. The district recently eliminated rural recycling pickup, in an effort to reduce costs. McKinney said only a third of rural customers use their recycling bins.
Cities have operated recycling centers, which mostly serve rural residents, because city residents already have curbside collection. The recycling center in Berryville has been relocated to the transfer station on U.S. Hwy. 62 Spur and is no longer open around the clock. McKinney said the city of Berryville had recurring problems with people using the recycling center as a trash dump.
“We could sell out to a private company, but rates would go up,” McKinney said. He also dismissed the suggestion of dumpsters placed throughout the county.