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Minutes - Special Meeting Solid Waste Advisory Board March 31 , 2009 Approved May 7, 2009 Attendance : Jan Sassaman, Bonnie Norwood, Linda Bowerman, Al Vickers, Remus Smith, and BJ Tipton Staff: Gayle Wilson Blair Pollock, Paul Spire, Terry Thomas, Rob Taylor, Gwen Harvey, Hary Howard, Nicole Ard, Ken Hines, Chris Sherman and Wanda McCain Guest: Bob Sallach, Jim Reynolds, Ernie Parker - Olver Inc, Bonnie Hauser - Orange County Voice Sassaman states that there are two items on the agenda dealing with the issue of the transfer station hauling and disposal cost analysis . We will hear first from Orange County Voice . They have an analysis and a presentation they would like to make . Our consultants, Olver, will then give their detailed analysis . After that time we will have an opportunity for the SWAB to ask questions . Because there is another SWAB meeting on Thursday, this meeting will end at 9 pm . 1 . Presentation of Orange County Voice Analysis - Bonnie Hauser states that I ' m speaking on behalf of Orange County Voice . It is a community group out in rural Orange County . To set the context of the discussion, back in December the Orange County Commissioners rushed to site a waste transfer station on rural Hwy 54 . Other options were blocked politically and this was the path of least resistance . No one liked those sites, but the Commissioners were advised that the trash would pile up and create a health hazard if they didn ' t act quickly . At the same time some of us were questioning the notion of shipping the trash long distance to a landfill at all . It didn' t fit our values and we thought the County should research waste to energy (WtE ) as a long-term option for handling our trash . We thought the waste transfer station could be at the same site as the WtE facility or a least on route . SWAB had made a similar recommendation to the Commissioners in September . As an alternative to the rural siting and the long distance landfill hauling, our group contacted some local waste management vendors and learned that three of them Waste Management, Waste Industries, and Republic Waste had both the interest and the capacity to take our trash on an interim basis . At least until a better site could be found . If no site was found then they could take our trash as long as we ' d like . We reported our findings to the Commissioners and as a result the Commissioners asked the SWAB to provide a report on vendors and WtE alternatives . From what we can tell there has been a great deal of confusion about the relatively simple request. To us the question was simply are vendors an option until we can find a better site ? 1