- Commissioner Michael Kusch questions transfer station opposition from Commissioner Craig Harris: ‘I wish you would quit stirring up the mud’
- Consultant study recommends 2 transfer stations
- Murfreesboro government also has plans for southside transfer station
- Commissioner Allen McAdoo: ‘We don’t need partners’ on transfer station
Rutherford County will gain a $20.3 million solid waste transfer station to drop off collected waste before hauling it out, officials recently decided.
Rutherford County Mayor Joe Carr and other leaders recommended the financing approval by the County Commission to pay for the transfer station. The project is supposed to prepare the government to haul trash and recycling materials out of the county before the private Middle Point Landfill closes within four years on adjacent land.
Commissioner Craig Harris prior to the vote on Aug. 17 questioned the plan to build a transfer station on county property off East Jefferson Pike in the Walter Hill community on the northside. Harris suggested the mayor should talk to Murfreesboro officials about working together on solid waste plans before the county builds a transfer station.
“Build this together,” Harris said. “That conversation has to happen.”
Commissioner Michael Kusch took issue with what Harris said and suggested that Carr has been communicating on a regular basis with Murfreesboro officials on solid waste plans that include the city also building a transfer station on the southside off Butler Drive.
“I wish you would quit stirring up the mud,” Kusch told Harris.
Middle Point officials with BFI Waste Systems of Tennessee estimated in November 2022 that the landfill would be full by July 2027. BFI, which is part of Arizona-based Republic Services, had proposed a 99-acre expansion of the 203-acre landfill. BFI, however, lost ruling Friday that upheld a July 2021 decision by the Central Tennessee Regional Solid Waste Planning Board that rejected the expansion plan.
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Consultant study recommends 2 transfer stations
Kusch also suggested that 80% of what Harris was saying was hearsay.
“He does not have the facts,” Kusch said.
Kusch recalled how the county commission and Murfreesboro City Council split $250,100 in costs to hire consultant that recommended that two solid waste stations be built.
“To have peace, you have to prepare for wars,” Kusch said. “This is strategy. Please vote for (transfer station funding).”
Kusch and Harris had a tense exchange of words after the meeting while many people were still mingling in the courtroom.
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Commissioner McAdoo: ‘We don’t need partners’ on transfer station
Kusch’s position during the meeting had strong support from Commissioner Allen McAdoo, who also urged support for the transfer station.
The county needs a back up plan for when Middle Point Landfill closes and not depend on the Murfreesboro government officials building a transfer station, McAdoo suggested.
“We’re at their mercy,” McAdoo said. “We need a transfer station for Rutherford County.”
The commission should decide who can dump at the transfer station and what the rates will be, McAdoo added.
“We don’t need partners,” McAdoo said. “We need to be in charge, so that we can be the one that call the facts.”
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Second roll call votes to allow unanimous decisions on transfer station
Harris joined the majority in the initial 19-1 vote for the transfer station funding with only Commissioner Paul Johnson opposing. Harris, however, then joined Johnson in voting against a more detailed financing motion that described how the county would pay for the principal and interest for the $20.3 million bond to build the transfer station.
By the end of the meeting, Commissioner Anthony Johnson called for a process to allow Paul Johnson, who had second thoughts of his initial votes, to formally change positions on the two roll call votes on the transfer station financing. Both Paul Johnson and Harris each joined unanimous 20-0 decisions.
Anthony Johnson said after the meeting that he proposed the process to smooth over relationships of the county officials.
“There’s been a lot of animosity for whatever reason,” Anthony Johnson said. “It’s got to stop.”
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By the numbers: Middle Point Landfill
- Size of existing landfill: 207.3 acres
- Height of landfill: 234 feet
- Additional height allowed by state permit: 80 feet
- State-permitted cubic yards of waste allowed: Nearly 38.8 million
- Proposed expansion: 99.45 acres
- Proposed additional cubic yards of waste under expansion: 32 million
- Percentage increase in cubic yards of waste if allowed: 82.5%
- Estimated trash hauled by Rutherford County government in 2021: 49,000 tons
- Estimated trash hauled by Murfreesboro government in 2021: 51,000 tons
- Estimated trash hauled by private commercial haulers in county in 2021: 270,000 tons
- Estimated trash hauled to landfill from Rutherford County in 2021: 370,000 tons
- Estimated trash dumped at landfill from other counties in 2021: 750,000 tons
- Estimated total tons in 2021 dumped at landfill: 1.1 million
Source: Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and Bishop Wagener, Rutherford County solid waste director
About Rutherford County Commission
- Number of elected Rutherford County Commission members: 21
- Authority of commission: approve tax and funding plans for Rutherford County government and school district operations
- Commission committees: Steering, Legislative & Governmental, Budget, Finance & Investment, Health & Education, Public Safety, Public Works & Planning, Property Management and Purchasing
- Other boards with commission representation: Rutherford County Regional Planning Commission, Benefits & Insurance Committee, Audit Committee, Agriculture Advisory Board, Community Care Board, Opioid Board
- Length of terms following elections, including August 2022: four years
- Where do commissioners meet: Rutherford County Courthouse in center of Murfreesboro’s downtown Public Square
Source: Rutherford County government website