Cascade County Commissioners said Dec. 16 that Rimrock Valley Preserve was blocking community access to the Belt/Armington solid waste dumpsite.

In a statement, commissioners said they “strongly condemn” the move.

Commissioners and county staff had been working with Rimrock Valley Preserve to reach an agreement regarding the Belt/Armington site, including direct negotiations.

Commissioners said that Rimrock Valley Preserve demanded to triple the county’s leader payment, and the “county, understandably, did not immediately accept this proposal. Since that point, the county has been reviewing all potential options regarding the Belt/Armington site, in order to keep waste management costs reasonable for county residents,” according to a county release.

Commissioners are “exploring all available options to mitigate this community issue,” according to a release.

The following solid waste sites remain open and operational for Cascade County residents on the days and times specified:

• Cascade: 2055 Simms-Cascade Road, Sun River, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Fort Shaw: 65 Dr Russell Road, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Hardy Creek: 2323 Old U.S. Highway 91, Cascade, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Monarch: 2 Hoover Creek Road, September through May, Tuesday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and June through August , Tuesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Stockett: 15 Cottonwood Coulee Road, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Ulm: 88 Collins Road, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Vaughn: 12 Vaughn North Frontage Road, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For more information or to report concerns related to the dump site, contact Commissioner James Larson at 406-454-6810, or jlarson@cascadecountymt.gov.

Commissioners and county staff have been discussing the county’s solid waste program for months.

County approves solid waste site; contract updates; vehicle purchases; tension amongst commissioners continues

In November, Commissioners Jim Larson and Joe Briggs attended a meeting with Trista Besich, county finance officer; Les Payne, county public works director; Diane Heikkila, county treasurer and some of her staff; Carey Ann Haight, deputy county attorney; and Sandra Merchant, county clerk and recorder to discuss the solid waste program.

Commissioner Rae Grulkowski had requested the meeting but did not attend. The other two commissioners said she’d told them she wouldn’t attend because she didn’t like the format of the informal meeting that wasn’t recorded and minutes weren’t taken. The meeting was open to the public and The Electric attended.

During that meeting, the group discussed the Belt/Armington site as an issue and that there were problems with the lease agreement negotiations.

Briggs reviewed the history of the county’s solid waste program, which he said state law requires the county to have.

He said he has “no desire to go into the landfill business.”

Solid waste was initially under the county health department, Briggs said, and the county owned trucks, dumpsters, did maintenance and transported trash from dump sites to the landfill, but did not have site attendants.

He said that was before his time as a commission and during his first term, the county had no money to set aside for equipment and capital improvements.

Briggs said at that time, the county approached what was Greens Disposal at the time for services. That company was later acquired by Montana Waste, which has since been acquired by Republic Services, which currently operates in the community and owns the High Plains Landfill.

County approves solid waste fee increase

Briggs said the county stopped transporting trash from dump sites to the landfill, but still pays for what it dumps at the landfill via those dump sites. Republic Services provides the site attendants as part of its contract with the county.

The county owns or leases the sites and structures, but the bins and attendants are owned or employed by Republic.

It’s an “interesting blend,” Briggs said.

He said the county was being charged for hazardous materials dumped at sites so the county opted to pay for the site attendants to better control what was being left at dump sites.

When they added attendants, the county realized how many Lewis and Clark County residents were using the Hardy Creed dump site.

County considering solid waste fee increase during Sept. 19 meeting

The county has a contract with Republic Services for another four years and have having performance issues with the company such as full bins and residents being turned away at dump sites, and inconsistency with punch cards.

There are “ongoing problems with performance of the contract,” Briggs said and the county legal office was looking at the contract issues.

Commissioner Jim Larson said that Republic is the only game in town for the landfill so “we’re gonna pay them one way or another.”

The value of the punches on the county punch cards has been discussed during several meetings this year.

Briggs said when the county added attendants at the dump sites, the county calculated its fixed costs to set those rates, but didn’t account for landfill fee and hauling trash.

He said the county has been running in the red for solid waste for several years so they need to take a serious look as they’re running out of reserve funds.

The group discussed whether the county should charge more for out of county residents to use the dump sites, but “county taxpayers don’t contribute to the system,” Briggs said. “Management of the system is at best awkward.”

There’s also internal complications in handling the punch cards, which is based on habitable structures through several county data systems.

City Commission approves utility, sanitation fee increases

County officials discussed the need to simply the system and have one county office take the lead on the solid waste program.

They also discussed site usage, whether to consolidate or close sites or install compactors to help cut down on mileage and transit costs if the county can move more garbage per trip.

Les Payne, county public works director, said if the county really wants to save money, they should get away from the third party and transport trash themselves from the dump sites to the landfill. He said the county is losing money in the site attendants.

Briggs said cutting transport services from the Republic contract could cause the company to attempt to increase their landfill fees to the county.

Briggs said they’d been told by the public during commission meetings that it should be a pay as you go system, but people dump trash on the side of the road or outside the sites, which is why they made an area for people to walk in to drop trash if the site is closed to vehicles.

Trista Besich, county finance officer, said the system rapidly becomes cost prohibitive if it’s pay as you go and costs aren’t distributed countywide.

Briggs said he doesn’t suggest going into the landfill business, but could consider a joint operation with the city.

City considering landfill options [2023]

The city has determined not to pursue opening its own landfill, according to Chris Gaub, city public works director.

Payne said they need to look at sites with expired or soon to expire leases since those landowners have the ability to force the county into higher rates and they need to look at owning their own sites.

“Why do we need so many small sites so close together,” Payne asked and said he’d found some land between Hardy Creek and Cascade that the landowner was willing to lease.

Besich asked if they should plan for such as site since the lease at Cascade was iffy for renewal.

Briggs said they had more immediate issues but that they should plan for that in the near future.

The group said they’d meet again after Besich compiles a 18-month look back at the costs and usage at all of the county’s solid waste sites to better analyze the program and options.

Payne said he hears complaints from residents who don’t use their punch cards and don’t get refunded.

Besich said there’s confusion on that since people don’t understand they can get credit through Republic if they have other Republic services, but the county doesn’t issue a refund and that information is included on the punch card.

Briggs said that it was an early political decision to refund the unused punch card fees if they weren’t used in those areas that had access to other garbage collection services.

“It’s not a fair system,” he said.

Staff discussed improving their communication about how the process works for unused punch cards

County staff is also discussing how to make printing and mailing costs for the punch cards more efficient, such as combining that mailing with the tax bills.

Heikkila said she supports reopening the county print shop to bring those services in house and have better control over those timelines.

Besich said during the November meeting that half of county departments were already over budget on printing costs.

Payne, the county public works director, said the solid waste program should be assigned to a department because there are currently too many people involved, slowing processes.