Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Materials Management Manager Curt Judson said the Houghton County Transfer Station is a benefit to county residents, but currently is not up to meeting the demands placed on it.

HOUGHTON – The solid waste transfer station, located in Atlantic Mine, owned and operated by Houghton County, is one of five properties being looked at by the Houghton County-Held Properties Committee.

Materials Management Manager Curt Judson, a member of the committee, discussed the benefits and liabilities of the county’s ownership of the facility.

“The pros are the fact that we’re able to provide a service for the residents of Houghton County and surrounding counties as a feasible way of getting rid of their trash,” he said.

The con is that if the facility is privatized, the facility’s rates will be substantially increased, Judson said, “because they are for-profit centers.”

Judson said the transfer station is generating enough revenue to cover its expenses plus purchasing or replacing some equipment every year, but the facility definitely does not charge the highest disposal fees. The facility is experiencing increased usage. “Currently we are just shy of 18,000 tons for the year,” he said. “Previously, we were at 17,000 tons, so we’re expanding.”

Judson said while business is increasing, the facility is not expanding to reflect the incerases. “That’s part of the problem,” he said. “But if you privatize it, you might start seeing garbage out in the woods again.”

Committee member and County Commissioner Glenn Anderson said when the county built the original solid waste facility, on Sharon Avenue, the theory was the Board did not want Waste Management having a monopoly on the market.

“At that time, the county decided to have the transfer station and they built it,” Anderson said. “The garbage went to Munising. I don’t know who owned that, but it wasn’t Waste Management at the time.”

The trucking costs between Houghton and Munising became prohibitive, he said. Anderson said the initial thinking of the county was that a transfer station would keep rates down and keep Waste Management, and subsequently its successors, competitive. “That’s the history of it,” Anderson said. “So the County Board thought that at least we would hold down some initial prices for Houghton County residents.”

Anderson went to say Waste Management does not accept cash, nor does it accept demolition material. “And of course, for our contractors in Houghton County, or many of us who do our own weekend warrior projects, (we) bring a load of debris (to the transfer station).”

Additionally, he said, most contractors have small trailers for bringing debris to the facility. If not for the transfer station, the nearest place to take debris would be Greenland, which would be time-consuming and expensive.

“That’s the argument, or the reason, I guess to keep it,” said Anderson, “and of course, I think the other reason, as we’ve talked about before, is in our contract with Waste Management for disposal at the landfill in Greenland, there’s an option in there that they have the right to refuse to buy it.

Even if the county put a contract out on bid, he said, and a competitor would accept it, they would have the right to match that, adding: “and, I’m pretty much assured they would do that.”

He said that would mean returning to a monopoly situation where there is no competition. In the event the county did sell the transfer station, Anderson, the wear and tear on the equipment is high, which would probably preclude the private owners from accepting construction debris. “And that’s just my thoughts on that,” he said, “because they don’t take it now.” This would mean, he said, contractors again having to haul debris to Greenland.