Tempers flare as officials try to find solutions to garbage problems

TOP PHOTO: Campbell County Sanitation Department Director Bill Rutherford (right) addresses an audience of around 30 people at Tuesday afternoon’s special called county sanitation committee meeting.

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF) – A special called county sanitation committee meeting was held on Tuesday evening to discuss problems at the county recycling and convenience center. Tempers flared as county and municipal officials tried to find a solution to too much garbage. WLAF telecast of the meeting on demand is HERE.

According to County Sanitation Department Director Bill Rutherford, the recycling and convenience center is “backed up” with nowhere to put additional garbage right now.

Things came to a head on Tuesday morning when municipalities were contacted and told they could not take their garbage to the county recycling center that morning due to it being full with “no where” to put it. Municipalities were forced to take their loads of garbage to Scott County, which caused a delay in picking up garbage, resulting in citizen complaints and employees overtime, according to city officials.   

According to Rutherford, the reason the trash has piled up is due to equipment “tearing up.” The department had three pieces of equipment “break down this week, which resulted in the garbage piling up.” The wreck involving a garbage truck several weeks ago also brought it down to three trucks, according to committee chair Ralph Davis. Both of the department’s front end loaders broke down today, which added to the problem, but one has since been repaired.

Several municipalities had representatives at the meeting to discuss the problem. Sanitation head David Muse from Caryville, Mayor June Forstner from Jacksboro and City Administrator Stan Foust from LaFollette were in attendance. Jellico had a representative at the meeting as well from its sanitation department.

Rutherford told city representatives “he wanted to take their garbage, but he physically didn’t have the room.” City and county officials discussed the problem for about 40 minutes without much being resolved.

LaFollette City Councilman Mark Hoskins asked what was the county’s short term and long term solution to the problem. Rutherford said he was reaching out to find a solution to get the piled up garbage out. He said he had spoken to Waste Connections about extending hours at the landfill to get it out quickly.

The plan is to get it moved out and everything back to normal by next week, according to Rutherford. 

Hoskins came up with a temporary solution and asked for a 40 yard dumpster to get the city through until a more long term solution occurred. The county offered to provide dumpsters for all municipalities on a temporary basis until things are back to normal next week. 

Forstner asked if the county couldn’t lease equipment to help move to garbage quickly. Rutherford said he had checked and none was available.

According to sanitation chair Ralph Davis, the county’s long term solution will be the purchase of multiple trash compactors. “Those compactors at the satellite locations will cut down vastly on the amount of garbage coming into the convenience center, which will hopefully prevent this from happening again,” Davis said. 

Recycling can still be brought to the center, but it needs to be checked, according to Rutherford and Davis who said recycling had not been coming in properly. According to Rutherford, the recycling is coming in mixed with garbage. City officials disagreed that recyclables were coming in as garbage. 

Davis suggested the recycling coming in would be checked and photographed to “check if it was clean.” He said the sanitation department would buy cameras to check it. 

Out going Jacksboro Mayor June Forstner said to notify her when Jacksboro’s was being checked so she could be there. LaFollette Mayor Mike Stanfield spoke briefly and offered some of the city’s equipment and employees to help “clear up the problem and move some brush or garbage.”

According to Davis, the county is in the process of purchasing the trash compactors soon, with the paperwork having been sent to the county finance department about costs. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 04/14/2021-6AM)