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The Moffat County commissioners sounded less than positive when discussing the opening of a proposed privately owned transfer station near Craig to serve the solid waste disposal needs of Moffat County.

Twin Landfill Corporation's proposal to open a transfer station was discussed at Monday's commission meeting.

"The cost of smaller (waste) stations has become prohibitive," said Les Liman, president of Twin Landfill Corporation and owner of a landfill in Milner, which would be used as the dumping site for trash collected at the transfer station.

In response to a concern about raising prices, Liman used an example of why costs would not get out of control. Liman said that in Gunnison County and Montrose landfills raised their rates to keep up with their fees and hauling companies pulled out and opened their own transfer stations. Gunnison lost a third of its volume.

"My proposal includes phasing out county-based subsidies of the current landfill," Liman said. "If anything, I would think that you would want to do the opposite (and not subsidize huge amounts of trash)."

"Making users pay, at least in the area of disposal," Liman said leads to more rational decisions about waste.

Some concerns were brought up by the commissioners in regard to the proposed station. Public hours, was addressed by Commissioner Marianna Raftopoulos as something that might be a problem. The current proposal has public hours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Raftopoulos said that many people are at work during those hours and cannot make it then.

"People who come to disposal sites with their own waste is 3 percent of the business and 50 percent of the problems," Liman said. "We really have to be careful how we deal with these people (people who bring waste to landfills)."

Liman said he tells people who are concerned with less hours of operation that he would have to stay open until 8 p.m. for people who only make trips to the landfill twice a year.

"I am trying to be cost effective," Liman said.

Another concern was that Moffat County has just built a landfill, which is now operating well.

"A transfer facility here could keep costs down for each county (Routt and Moffat)," Liman said.

Raftopoulos said the existing landfill is breaking even and that last year the county did not contribute any property tax to keep the landfill working.

"There is going to have to be a lot of facts to change my mind," Raftopoulos said. "I think we have a good working system."

"The real thing is that we are willing to make a substantial investment in Moffat County," Liman said of building the transfer station in the county.

Commissioner Darryl Steele said there must be workshops done to address issues regarding the current landfill and the proposed transfer station.

"We need to go and do quite a bit of research," Steele said, "we want the rest of the players to sit in on this."

"We are also required to listen to our constituents and to do what they want," said Moffat County Commissioner Les Hampton.

At the commission meeting Monday:

• A proclamation was made to honor the memory of Joe Janosec, who served as Moffat County commissioner for seven years and was a teacher, coach and principal at Moffat County High School. Janosec died July 7.
• The commissioners discussed renaming Moffat County Road 7, Moffat County Road 183 and blocking off Moffat County Road 7 where it goes one-way. They decided to hold further discussions on at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 5 in the Annex Building and at 10 a.m. Aug. 11 in the Moffat County Commissioners' Chambers

Liz King is an intern with the Craig Daily Press. She can be reached at 824-7031 or eking@craigdailypress.com.