Cascade County Commissioners approved an $800 agreement with Market Research Group during their Aug. 12 meeting for an appraisal of the Stockett transfer site.
The site is located at 15 Cottonwood Coulee Road and open Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to the county website.
Temporary Belt dump site open as county continues work on permanent site
The county has been discussing the structure of its solid waste program for the last year and during multiple meetings, Public Works Director Les Payne has 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 in December.
County working to open temporary Belt dump site as design, construction done for long-term site
The issue was highlighted with the breakdown in negotiations between the county and the private landowner for the Belt site that lead to a sudden closure in December.
The county is “working on long-term stability for its local transfer sites by signing long-term leases with landowners and/or purchasing these lands,” Payne wrote in his Aug. 12 agenda report.
Payne said during the Aug. 6 work session that the lease for the Stockett site is due to expire soon, so he spoke with the property owners about the county potentially purchasing the 1.55 acre property.
The first step in that process is obtaining an appraisal, Payne said.
The county has been leasing the property for at least the last 20 years, according to documents in the commission’s meeting packet, and the property owner recently passed away but her daughter is the executor, who gave the county the go ahead to proceed with the appraisal.
Commissioners approved the $800 agreement with Market Research Group of Great Falls for the appraisal.
