The Lycoming County commissioners on Thursday will consider adoption of a regional plan to guide the disposal of garbage for the next decade.
The plan, which is required by the state Department of Environmental Protection and must be updated every 10 years, covers five counties: Lycoming, Snyder, Montour, Union and Columbia, said Megan Lehman, county environmental planner.
The plan already has been approved by the other four counties and has received the preliminary approval of the DEP, said Kurt Hausammann Jr., director of the county Department of Planning and Community Development.
The agency's approval is based on the completion of a small list of revisions it wanted made to the plan, Hausammann said.
Although the five counties involved in the plan are in the Lycoming County landfill's service area, it is not a "controlled flow plan," meaning it does not require waste haulers to disposed of garbage at a particular landfill, Hausammann said.
For example, it would be more feasible for a waste hauler serving customers in the Pine Creek area to dispose of that waste at the landfill in Clinton County, rather than haul it to the Lycoming County landfill in Brady Township.
Each county must have an updated solid waste plan. By taking a regional approach to developing the plan, all five counties saved a substantial amount of money, Hausammann said.
The plan cost about $400,000 to complete. That cost was shared by all five counties, Hausammann said. It would have cost each county between $150,000 and $250,000 to create the plan separately, he said.
If the commissioners approve the plan, the next step will be for it to receive municipal approval, Lehman said.
At least half of the county's municipalities must adopt the plan and those municipalities must account for at least half of the county's population, Lehman said.
The DEP's final approval must be made prior to the end of the year, she said.
In other business, the commissioners will consider submission to the state Department of Public Welfare a needs-based budget and spending plan for county Children and Youth Services.
The plan requests $112.5 million in funding, according to Mark Egly, Children and Youth Services administrator.
Submitting a budget to the department does not necessarily mean the agency will receive the requested funding, Egly said.
The commissioners will consider an intergovernmental agreement with the Borough of Montoursville to allow the county and borough to partner together to buy and demolish a flood damaged property on Mill Street in the borough.
The appraised value of the property is $125,000, said John Lavell, county hazard reduction planner. The cost of demolishing the property is yet to be determined, Lavelle said.
The property has sustained $128,000 in damage since 1984, Lavelle said.
Although some frequently-flooded property may be eligible for a federal buyout program, the Mill Street property was not considered for that program, Lavelle said.
That is because the federal program restricts what can be done with a property after it is purchased and demolished, he said. It only can be used for recreation and open space, he said. No permanent structures can be built on the property, he said.
By using local funding to buy and demolish the property, fewer restrictions can be placed on what can be done with it afterward, he said.
That is especially important because the construction of a flood control levee is proposed near the property and it may be needed as the site of a support structure, such as a pump station, he said.
