“We went from losing millions of dollars to making over a million. That’s a big turnaround.”
That is White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson, addressing concerns from residents about the Solid Waste Budget. Several residents said they expected expenses to decrease following the sale of the landfill to Waste Management. Resident Beth Rizone said she compared current and past budgets and found the difference in spending to be only a few hundred thousand dollars.
“If we got rid of the dump, why are we almost at the same price that we were when we were running the dump?” Rizone said, “And we were having to truck out trash to other locations. So if you take that into account, we really haven’t lost anything on the budget, we didn’t save anything.”
Rizone said the savings should be more substantial given that the landfill was a major portion of the county’s operations. Robinson said the landfill sale has significantly improved the financial outlook for the department.
Robinson said the county still employs staff to operate convenience centers and maintain equipment used for transporting waste. Robinson said these employees chose to stay with the county rather than transition to employment with Waste Management.
Robinson said the county lost equipment operator positions after the sale was finalized. Solid Waste Committee Chairman Dakota White said no county employees are currently working at the landfill facility.
Robinson said some former landfill employees were given the option to remain with the county in different roles.
