Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Waste District Picks BFI Landfill

A new landfill has been found for use by the Southwest Central Regional Solid Waste Management District.

According to Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith, while the bid from Waste Management, Inc., was the lower bid, the intangibles made it less cost effective than BFI's bid.

Smith said when considering traffic flow and having to cross the Arkansas River Bridge during rush hour traffic at times, Waste Management was out of luck.

Some members of the district's board of directors wanted to table making a decision and study the situation for another month. This, though, was not done.

Instead, the board went ahead with the vote, with BFI getting the contract by a 5-2 margin.

Now, the district's attorney will have to work with BFI to iron out the details in a contract. The initial deal will be for three years, including two one year options.

The district is currently using the Saline County landfill, but the contract will expire at the end of September. Because of prior problems of the landfill management trying to raise the district's rate, and the district winning a subsequent lawsuit against the landfill operation, the Saline County facility was not an option.

Smith said the board was pleased with the bids received. "I think we made a good choice," he said. "The contract should be ready in July."

B&F Engineering of Hot Springs was authorized to go forward with a feasibility study of the possibility of a landfill in the three-county district.

The company will try and locate a site for the potential landfill, and attempt to get a long- term option on the land. The next step will be getting the proper permits for the company.

Once this is done, Smith said, the district can use it as leverage for future contract negotiations with other landfills. "It will give us another option. We're doing all we can to keep the cost of solid waste as low as possible for the people of the district.