Marion, Kila sites to merge
A consolidated Ashley Lake Road green-box site for Marion and Kila is supposed to be functioning by this fall.
The Flathead County Solid Waste Board voted 7-0 Tuesday to go ahead with the project.
The next steps are for the county to obtain an easement for the site from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, get the Montana Land Board's approval for the easement, and design the facility.
The timetable tentatively calls for the new site to be functioning in about October, though the board wants it ready in September to give residents time to get use to it in good weather.
Board members thought about delaying the merger of the two community dump sites for one or two years, but then decided to go ahead this year.
The merger is prompted by financial and liability concerns.
However, numerous Kila and Marion residents don't want to lose their individual green-box sites.
The plan will put a joint collection site about halfway between the two communities on Ashley Lake Road, near the intersection with U.S. 2 West.
The current cost estimate is about $375,000 to engineer and construct the new site and about $70,000 a year to operate it. To address highway safety, a new site entrance is proposed about 600 feet to the west of Ashley Lake Road.
The Montana Department of Transportation maintains that 1,220 feet of sight distance is necessary in both directions for a speed limit of 70 mph. The new approach off U.S. 2 has more than 1,500 feet of sight distance in each direction, the solid waste board said.
This merger is part of a plan by the county Public Works Department to consolidate green box-sites around the Flathead for economic and efficiency reasons.
No decision or timetable has been set yet on picking the next consolidated site, county Public Works Director Dave Prunty said.
He said the leading candidates would be consolidating three small sites at Coram, merging the Bigfork and Creston sites (probably at Creston), or merging the Somers and Lakeside sites (probably at Somers).
The county currently owns the dump sites at Columbia Falls, Coram and Creston - and leases the others.
The county is looking at buying 3.2 acres that it leases from the Montana Department of Transportation at Somers. That lease expires in two years, and the county wants to ensure it can keep a green-box facility at that location, Prunty said.
Right now, the Montana Department of Transportation has an appraised value of $175,000 for that site, and has indicated it won't drop below that price.
The county is preparing to get a required third-party appraisal.
If the county-hired appraisal falls short of the state's threshold of $175,000, the two sides might hit an impasse in negotiating a sale, Prunty said.