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After paying almost $5.9 million to the federal government, Lycoming County now owns the land where the landfill is situated plus additional acreage which will allow for expansion well into the future.
The purchase of 1,076 acres, which includes the current site of the landfill, was approved by the county commissioners, who labeled the purchase "generational," at their weekly meeting.
Money for the $5,869,412 purchase price comes from Resource Management capital funds which had been set aside for that purpose and not from taxpayer dollars, the commissioners noted.
Speaking about the purchase, Commissioner Scott Metzger said, "It is exciting, because it extends the life of the landfill for over half a century or more."
The idea of purchasing the land has been in the works for a long time -- a little over 20 years, according to Jason Yorks, RMS director.
"It was originally going to encompass a lot more ground, we were going to build them a camp and then that went away. Of course, the federal government, a lot of the folks that we interact with at the level of BOP, that we interact with at the Bureau of Prisons, those folks are only in those positions, one or two, maybe three years at most. And there's just constant transitions...it's just a constant rotation of folks," Yorks said.
"Kudos to them as well, the federal government, because they were able to see our vision, the previous boards of commissioners have been able to see the vision of RMS and what our goals are, and where we need to be. You always need to have room to grow," Yorks said.
The growth of the landfill, Yorks pointed out, will be away from areas of population.
"You'll notice that we are not moving towards more population, we are moving away, we're going back away from the homes. We're not going to build on the other side of Route 15 where Diggers is," he said, which is a question he said he is frequently asked.
"I get asked that probably once a month, twice or so, 'Hey, when are you gonna put garbage on the other side?' We're not. That's all for industrial development. We're heading in the other direction," he said.
Commissioner Rick Mirabito pointed out that people may not be aware that the county has not owned the land where the landfill is located, but had been leasing it from the federal government.
"It gives us more flexibility. For example, if down the road in 50 years or whatever, the commissioners wanted to sell the landfill, you can't sell land you don't own. So we now own that land under the landfill," Mirabito said.
There are stipulations that the property cannot be used for residential purposes, Yorks said.
"We're already moving forward, because there's a ton of environmental stuff you've got to do, because the landfill cells that we plan on developing there will be years down the road," he said. "Basically for the next five or eight years, I'll be doing work for the next director, because my tenure will be long gone before they really get in there," Yorks said.
"It's a wonderful accomplishment for Lycoming County. It's generational, which is what this board of commissioners has had vision for with everything we've done to make sure this is something that's generational impact," Metzger said.
In other business, the commissioners approved awarding the following requests for proposal: for the Brown Farm Fish Habitat Project to Watson Excavating Inc. in the amount of $67,600; and for the Spring Garden Fish Habitat Design Project to Smith Excavating and Construction in the amount of $51,964.
The commissioners approved the Act 152 and Behavioral Health Services Initiative Subrecipient Monitoring agreements with West Brand Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission for fiscal years 2022-23 and 2023-24 in the following amounts: FY 22-23, $801,812; FY 23-24, $801,814.
Other actions taken by the commissioners included the approval of: the Community Development Block Grant Program agreement in the amount of $597,566; the rebuild of a hammer attachment for RMS in the amount of $57,169; and an amendment to the agreement with Ways Garden granting an extension to the project.
Under personnel, the commissioners approved hiring the following people for the positions and rates of pay listed: Alyssa Feony, full-time replacement temporary law clerk in the public defender office, $57,876 per year; Michael Hoffman, full-time new position maintenance III, electrical in facilities management, $29.40 per hour; Karen Skiro, full-time replacement, administrative specialist in information technology, $17.64 per hour; Joyce McRae, part-time replacement clerk III in information technology, $15.74 per hour; Richard Butler and Zaire Jones-Wallace, full-time replacement resident supervisors I at the pre-release center, $18.10 per hour each.
The next commissioners meeting will be at 10 a.m. Aug. 31 in the Commissioners Board Room, 1st floor Executive Plaza, 330 Pine St.