Grant County to keep most drop boxes open

EPHRATA — Grant County plans to close two of nine garbage drop boxes around the county, raise fees and extend hours on two other boxes in 2010.

These changes are part of an interim plan approved by the Grant County commissioners after dismissing a plan to phase out the boxes starting in 2010.  The county held a public hearing about closing the boxes in Mattawa, George, Coulee City, O’Sullivan, Wilson Creek, Warden, Royal City, Beverly and Hartline.

The closure suggestion came from Grant County’s Public Works Department and the Solid Waste Advisory Committee because the cost of running them exceeded the revenue. The boxes generated $117,002 in revenue and cost the county $215,907 in 2008, according to county documents. Each of the boxes lost money for the past three years.

As a result, the county plans to close the Hartline and Beverly drop boxes and increase the fees to $5.79 for less than a cubic yard, $13.51 per cubic yard for non compacted garbage and $23.16 per cubic yard of dense or compacted trash.

Since the Beverly and Hartline boxes are near boxes in Mattawa and Coulee City, the county decided eliminate them, Grant County Commissioner Cindy Carter said.

“We’re not pulling it out of an area,” she said. “The Beverly drop box was the least-used one.”

The county is going to try the plan for 2010 to see if the drop boxes can pay for themselves, Carter said. They plan to reexamine the possible closure in 2011, depending on the results.

“It’s something that needs to pay for itself,” she said. “It’s not something that should be subsidized by people using the landfill. It needs to be self-supporting.”

While the county is closing the two drop boxes, they are also extending hours at the Coulee City and Mattawa drop boxes. Coulee City will be open for a full day on Saturday and Mattawa will be open for a full day on Friday.

While people asked about opening the Mattawa drop box on Sunday, Carter said the public works doesn’t have the people to empty the drop box if it became full.

“That would be the problem, if we say we’re open on Sunday and then we have to close because we’re full,” she said. “We don’t have an individual that could bring an empty drop box (on Sunday).”