Whitley County transfer station now open

Whitley County Sanitation’s garbage service will now be able to a run more smoothly since the new transfer station is officially open and operational.

Community leaders cut the ribbon on the transfer station located off Happy Hollow Road behind Wendy’s in Williamsburg on Jan. 12.

“What it does for us, is it allows us to better time our routes because we can dump and empty every morning rather than having to wait until we are full to dump and have to pull out of the day for a two hour run to the landfill,” said Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White.

White said that the new transfer station saves the county money on freight.

“It also saves us on cost of that freight because instead of hauling 6 tons in a garbage truck we are hauling 30 tons in a tractor-trailer,” said White.

“It makes us more efficient,” said White. “It makes it more convenient and faster. It allows our staff to do more of what we are designed to do which is to residential pickup rather than the freight hauling to the landfill.”

The county has been in the garbage business for almost two years said White.

Shortly after entering the business, the fiscal court was able to purchase the transfer station property, which is the former Forest Products Sawmill in Williamsburg. The office building and two buildings on the back of the property were already established when the land was purchased.

The fiscal court began developing the property by clearing the log yard at the front of the property, laying gravel and putting in a drainage system throughout the property.

Concrete for the transfer station was poured to create a 13-foot and 8-inch concrete wall with a pad below it for the trailer to park on and then a 50 by 60-foot concrete pad on top for the garbage trucks to dump in.

The transfer station works by allowing garbage trucks to dump their loads on the upper pad, and a backhoe pushes the garbage over the edge into the trailer below.

“We just recently completed that within the last 4 to 6 weeks,” said White.

“The other thing that will happen out here is over time we are going to expand to where our customers can bring things in like on dumpster days, and as long as they check into the office, they can dump here during the week,” said White. “If they show that they are a customer of Whitley Sanitation then they will be able to bring a couch or a mattress or something and not have to wait for that monthly event.”