Lyon County residents will soon have a new option for trash pickup.
The Lyon County Fiscal Court approved a plan Thursday to solicit bids from garbage haulers interested in serving the unincorporated areas of the county.
Residents can currently haul their trash to the county convenience center or privately contract with the CWI firm.
The issue “has become an even more important event now that CWI has terminated service in the southern end of the county,” Judge/Executive Jimmy Campbell said.
By selecting a company to have an exclusive franchise in the county, “we could possibly provide lower rates to customers, and we would have some control over whether they went or not,” he added.
Magistrates spoke Thursday with Shannon Baize from Freedom Waste Service, the company that provides trash pickup in Princeton, Caldwell County, Crittenden County and other areas.
Having the franchise, she said, would result in lower rates for county customers or financial returns to the fiscal court.
The new franchise would not be mandatory, the judge/executive said. “We’re not by any means telling anybody this is a service you have to take.”
The demand, though, is there, magistrates noted.
“Some of the older people are wanting it, because they’re not able to get out (to the convenience center),” Magistrate Charles Ferguson said.
Having a company with smaller trucks hauling trash would also benefit the county, since those smaller vehicles could access more residents.
CWI’s trucks are “just tearing up the roads,” Magistrate Steve Cruce said.
“I think it’s something worth looking at,” Campbell said.
In other business:
• The court discussed plans for highway repaving this year with Tom Hines, area engineer for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
“Last year, we chose to do Ky. 274, which is still not done,” he said.
The plan involved repaving 4.3 miles of the highway, which runs from the Confederate community to the Trigg County line.
The contractor hired to do the job ran out of time last year, Hines said. “That should be the first project done this year.”
Federal stimulus funds were also used last year to repair and replace sections of Interstate 24 in the county. That project is essentially complete, though a few punch list items remain unfinished, he said.
The work the cabinet is looking at this year includes some repairs and adjustments at a few major intersections — the junction of Ky. 93, U.S. 62 and Fairview Avenue, the intersection of U.S. 62 and U.S. 641 North toward Fredonia, and the intersection of U.S. 62 and Ky. 93 near Broadbent’s in Kuttawa.
The I-24 ramps in the county may also be looked at, he said. “If the money allows, I want to do a maintenance patch on those on- and off-ramps,” he said.
Work is also planned on some of the county’s lesser-traveled highways, Hines noted.
In the rural secondary highway program schedule, planners are proposing repaving Ky. 810, from U.S. 62 to the boat ramp at its opposite end.
Continuing development in the area heightens the project’s importance, said Hines. “I think it’s the one that needs it the most right now.”
In a related move, the court approved an annual road aid resolution and contract. The county is due to receive $348,283 from the agreement for road work.
• The court awarded a contract for mowing and landscaping at the courthouse and at Lee S. Jones Park to the Supreme Lawncare and Landscaping firm, based in Grand Rivers.
Their bid of $900 per mowing was the lowest of six bids received.
Western Kentucky Correctional Complex inmates had previously been handling the mowing and landscaping duties.
WKCC’s pending conversion to an all-female inmate population has led the county to end its inmate labor arrangement and pursue private companies to handle the work the inmates previously provided.
• Magistrates approved the appointment of Cecil Neel to the Lyon County Fire District 1 board of directors.
Board members Keith Ladd and Randy Barnett had resigned from the board.
Neel will fill one of those seats.
• The court’s next meeting is set for 1 p.m. Thursday, April 15.
