After multiple discussions spent on the matter, the Dawson County Board of Commissioners voted on Aug.4 to approve $350,000 for initial fixes to the waste transfer station located at 946 Burt Creek Road. 

The money will come out of the county’s solid waste fund. 

District 3 Commissioner Tim Satterfield proposed the amount after County Manager David Headley estimated that the first phase of repairs would likely cost between $250,000-$275,000, contingent on costs when construction starts. 

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“That way, you don’t have to come back to ask us for another $50,000 to $100,000,” Satterfield said. 

Headley added during his voting session presentation that the approximate $250,000 would be “the least amount of money to get the programs up and running and see how they go.”

Headley previously spoke to the commissioners about how commercial waste operations have damaged the transfer station building’s structural integrity, such as the I beams or floor area. 

Other problems include insufficient floor space inside and outside the station as well as a lack of processing equipment and likelihood of mixing or contaminating already-separate recyclables.

This first round of improvements will entail repairs to the transfer station building and it being retrofitted with a pull-in and drop-off recycling system, similar to Pickens County. 

Customers will have separate areas to dispose of household trash and place recyclables. Bins or divided compactors would bear signage showing what is and isn’t acceptable.

“The current system doesn't work, and we end up paying for that as trash more than we wind up being recycled because it becomes contaminated,” said BOC Chairman Billy Thurmond. 

Also as part of the project, roofs and wingwalls on the station’s main rectangular structure will be extended to help facilitate the new setup. 

One of the next expected steps in the transfer station’s transformation is a request to hire another full-time person or perhaps two part-time people to help monitor and assist residents in separating their recyclable materials.