B

At its Monday meeting the Hamblen County Commission’s Bulk Waste Study Committee voted to no longer pick up construction materials, and brush, trash and bulk waste if not separated.

The committee has been meeting since February to address the issue of bulk waste within the county.

After months of listening to community members’ concerns and commissioners’ ideas, the committee came to the decision to discontinue county pick up of construction waste for residential properties and trash, brush and bulk waste if not separated, both effective on August 1, 2023.

Committee Chairman Tim Horner explained the reasoning behind the discontinuation of construction waste pick up.

“I brought this to the attention of the committee last meeting because a lot of construction companies who are charging people thousands to haul the waste off their property will just take it to their own home and set it on the road for the county to pick it up,” Horner said. “Frankly we don’t have the manpower or trucks to pick up trash people are just throwing out.

“I don’t know why people think we should be picking it up anyways. We have free trash pickup and we’re the only county that has door to door pick up and even then we said if it’s not in the bin we won’t pick it up.

“When people move everything goes to the road and I propose that we start with the discontinuation of construction waste because we don’t know what’s in it. When they scoop it up and take it to the landfill we don’t know what is in the pile.”

Following Horner’s proposal, commissioners discussed the idea of discontinuing county pick up of construction waste.

“I think we as a commission need to realize we are not going to do away with bulk waste pick up, it’s only to make it better and make it more feasible,” Commission Chairman Chris Cutshaw said. “I think dealing with construction waste, it’s a start.”

“I think it will be a tremendous effort to get our trash pickup schedule down with this decision.”

“We are not in the business of being a hauling business,” Commissioner Stan Harville said. “These things started as brush trucks. They were called brush trucks for a reason because that’s what we were going to pick up and it’s been more than picking up anything that people can throw in a ditch.

“We are blessed to even have a brush truck but that’s what it is, period and we need to go back to that,” Commissioner Peggy Howell said.

Cutshaw mentioned how he believes abruptly stopping the service will cause more harm than good.

“I think abruptly stopping bulk waste will cause more problems,” he said. “It’s going to take time. I think we start with construction waste and see where we go. We’ve been doing this and stopping a service we’ve been doing will have repercussions.”

Commissioner Edna Greene mentioned the older members of the community, who do not own trucks or have family to haul these items to the landfill.

“Those people who are not in possession of a way to haul construction waste and not able to move it usually have not done the work and they have hired people to do it, and the person who was hired is responsible for hauling it off,” Commissioner Thomas Doty said.

Commissioner Rodney Long asked if the county plans to stop construction waste pick up in the beginning of August will that be enough time to notify citizens.

“We could give them a year and it still wouldn’t be enough time but the sooner we get this issue dealt we can start getting compliance with it,” Commissioner Mike Richardson said.

“I know we need to start somewhere but do we give verbal warnings?” Cutshaw asked. “These guys who are picking up will know who’s abusing this service, but the first time after the discontinuation do we give warnings?

“We need to coordinate a way to let them know. Do we inform them when they are picking up a construction permit that we are no longer picking up construction waste?”

Richardson mentioned having the building department and planning commission give a flier informing the contractor that the county is no longer picking construction waste.

Doty informed the committee that when he was on the planning commission the other members were not receptive about providing extra information.

“They were very against doing anything extra and I think if anything that information should come from this body,” Doty said. “My thoughts would be do a printed pamphlet saying we are not picking that waste up, but here are several alternatives and we would give that out when contractors get permits.”

The committee voted unanimously to discontinue county pick up of construction waste.

Horner then explained the need to discontinue picking up trash, bulk waste and brush that is not separated.

“This is an issue because people with brush will throw their trash in with it and when the county picks it up and takes it to the landfill they can’t separate it,” Horner said. “The brush that we could burn goes in the landfill where it shouldn’t be.”

The problem of notifying the community about the discontinuation of the service arose during discussion.

Commissioners discussed using those with community service hours to place letters on doors, or place pamphlets on trash cans.

“I think we have an intelligent community and we put a public notice in the paper and over the radio and then if they fail to comply we give them over to codes and the enforcer handles it from there,” Commissioner Bobby Haun said. “We’re overthinking this, we are not talking about citations or giving anyone a fine, but when they fail to comply the code enforcer will put a sign in their yard with a message and that will educate them.”

“I think we need to make the rule, vote on it, enforce it on August 1 and go from there. The best education we can give people is to put it out there, it won’t cost them at first but after the code enforcer puts a sign in their year they will learn.”

The committee voted in favor of the discontinuation, with Greene voting no.

The entire commission will vote on both proposals at its meeting on May 18.