Daviess County Fiscal Court recently made the decision to direct all construction and demolition debris (CD&D) loads larger than a pickup truck to the Daviess County Landfill. Construction workers on Thursday voiced concerns including a negative impact on their industry, while County officials said the decision had to be made to help overworked transfer station employees.
The decision, which goes into effect July 3, means that large loads would not be able to be dropped off at the closer Grimes Avenue Transfer Station (2129 Grimes Avenue). The landfill is located well into the county at 7772 KY 815.
The June 15th release announcing the change gave the following reasoning:
“Since the Transfer Station opened in 1994, annual tonnage has more than doubled. Huge loads of CD&D material take up a large amount of tipping floor space and result in additional traffic that causes backups at the facility. Additionally, the CD&D waste is causing a lot of wear and tear on county tractor-trailers transporting the material to the Daviess County Landfill.”
David Smith, Fiscal Court Director of Legal Services, echoed that statement. Speaking during the Fiscal Court meeting Thursday, he said the plant has experienced a large increase in waste since the COVID-19 pandemic that has persisted.
He also expressed particular concern for the workers at the Grimes Avenue Transfer Station.
“Sometimes they’re working till 7 o’clock at night to get the floor clear. It’s not only stressing our truck drivers out, but our equipment operators and our mechanics out,” Smith said. “It’s an impossible situation. You want to provide a service to people, but if we don’t have the capacity to do it, and we don’t have the employee capacity to handle it, then something has to give.”
Dany Atherton, owner of All Star Waste, told Fiscal Court during the public comments portion of their meeting that he would have to purchase three additional trucks and hire drivers to operate in the capacity, and that 2 weeks’ notice was not enough time.
“I can’t depend on going to the transfer station and letting them look at it (and determine) is it solid waste or is it CD&D material,” Atherton said. “I just need some compassion from the court.”
Darrin Payne with Local Waste Solutions agreed with Atherton and added that trucks driving out to the landfill would present new dangers to the roadway.
Atherton also said that no one from Fiscal Court contacted him to ask how it would affect his business.
“You’re going to cripple the construction industry around here very badly, and I think you’re going to find out very quickly what the recourse is going to be,” Atherton said.
Smith said that the situation did not allow time to ask for public opinion, as workers vital to the plant’s operation were under extreme work stress due to overtime hours.
