Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Solid Waste topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Knox County to commission waste‑stream study after hauling contract doubles, raising convenience‑center costs
Summary
Finance staff told the commission the county’s hauling contract roughly doubled, increasing convenience‑center costs by about $1.2 million; the FY27 proposal uses a $600,000 general‑fund transfer and additional transfers from engineering/public works and schedules a consultant study with options to be returned in 2–4 months.
Director Chris Caldwell told commissioners the county’s hauling contract for convenience centers has roughly doubled in cost, driving about a $1.2 million increase in convenience‑center expenditures. “Our hauling contract basically doubled in cost,” Caldwell said, explaining that convenience‑center revenues do not cover the heightened hauling expense and that state law requires a minimum of three centers while the county currently operates seven.
To balance the solid‑waste budget in the proposed FY27 plan, the county would use a $600,000 transfer from the general fund plus transfers from engineering and public works. Caldwell said one contributor to the centers’ increased cost is receipt of construction and demolition (C&D) waste at convenience centers; limiting C&D is an option but would raise enforcement and customer‑service issues.
Caldwell said the county has hired a consultant to perform a waste‑stream study and will present several options to the commission in the next two to four months, ranging from operating fewer centers to changing what materials are accepted or investing in a transfer station. Caldwell framed the consultant work as necessary to identify politically and operationally feasible paths forward and emphasized the county will present a set of options rather than a single recommendation.
Commissioner Fox and others asked how the county would pay ongoing costs and whether the city had increased its contribution; Caldwell said the city had increased its payment by $500,000 and that staff will return with specific options and financial projections.
