Kentucky county invests $2M in transfer station

Officials in Daviess County, Kentucky, have announced a $2 million investment in the Grimes Avenue Transfer Station for the upcoming fiscal year.

More than $1.6 million of the investment will go toward improving the Convenience Center where noncommercial haulers can unload their waste, reports The Owensboro Times. The center, which currently has four spots for vehicles to pull in, will be expanded to 16 spots on a raised platform.

Additionally, $360,000 will be used to replace the tipping floor and $32,000 will be used to replace the inbound scales.

Brian Lanham, supervisor of the transfer station, tells The Owensboro Times most of the investment will be put toward the Convenience Center because of current traffic issues.

“We have a small unloading area now, and it has grown to the point where we need to expand that facility,” he says. “The ultimate game plan is to alleviate some ... traffic congestion.”

Lanham predicts construction will cause minor delays but will not prevent haulers from getting in and out of the transfer station.

RELATED: Texas city plans to build $18M transfer station

As reported by The Owensboro Times, this announcement comes shortly after a decision was made to redirect the hauling of all construction and demolition debris (C&D) loads larger than a pickup truck directly to the landfill beginning July 3.

Many in the local construction industry expressed their concerns about the decision’s potentially harmful effects on construction in Owensboro and Daviess Counties.

At the last fiscal court meeting, the county’s director of legislative services, David Smith, said the decision had to be made, citing a lack of employee capacity to handle the volume of debris being delivered.

Lanham expressed a similar sentiment at the June 28 meeting, noting that crews have stayed at the station until 6 p.m. to load C&D debris from the parking lot into the back of the building.

When asked why no money was invested towards technology or solutions that would allow large loads of C&D to continue to be delivered to the transfer station, County Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen said that after speaking with consultants, it was clear there was nothing they could do.

“When we had our consultants come in, they advised us that nobody else that they deal with even takes C&D at their transfer stations and that it all goes to the landfill,” Castlen said. “We were an anomaly with regard to that.”