Canyon green boxes on chopping block

Flathead County is moving forward with plans to permanently close three of its smallest green-box garbage-collection sites at Essex, Nyack and Glacier Haven (formerly known as the Denny’s site).

Although an exact date has not been set yet, they most likely would shut down by late fall, County Public Works Director Dave Prunty said. The Solid Waste District Board will discuss the proposal and may make a decision at its July 22 meeting.

The three remote sites collect less than 1 percent of the county’s garbage, yet at $104 per ton to haul the refuse, they’re the costliest sites, he said. The consolidation would shift users in the northeastern reaches of Flathead County to the Coram green-box site.

The county hauls 300 tons of garbage a year from the three remote sites; that compares to 30,000 tons annually from all the green boxes.

“Business owners don’t want this to happen,” Prunty acknowledged during a report to the county commissioners on Wednesday. “They’d like the sites to stay open, keep the status quo. But does it make financial sense to run a truck up there?”

To trim costs the county last fall cut back its pickup service at the three sites from two days to one day a week.

Some users have suggested keeping the remote sites open during the busiest time of year, from May through September, but whether that’s viable “remains to be seen,” Prunty said.

Although the green boxes are for residential use only, he said many businesses use the sites even though they’re not supposed to. The county doesn’t have enough staff to patrol the green boxes and cite illegal users, he added.

More than a dozen businesses in the Canyon area, mostly bars and restaurants, don’t use a private refuse hauling service, Prunty said, and at least one business owner told him he would use the Coram site when the others close.

Prunty has met with the Great Northern Environmental Stewardship Area steering committee, agencies such as Fish, Wildlife and Parks and business owners to talk about the proposed closures.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com