The city of Statesboro recently spent almost $700,000 to buy nearly 39 acres of land off Lakeview Road for expansion of the inert waste landfill to extend its usefulness by an estimated 20 years.
Statesboro City Council approved the purchase by a 4-0 vote Jan. 28 after receiving a memo from city Public Works and Engineering Director John Washington and hearing a summary of it from Assistant City Manager Jason Boyles.
Bought from Marilyn Avila and Brenda W. Meeks for an exact price of $698,340, the tract adjacent to the existing inert landfill measures 38.73 acres. So, the price per acre was roughly $18,000.
“Buyer further acknowledges that this sale was prompted by threat of condemnation,” the purchase contract states, indicating that the city might otherwise have used eminent domain to force a sale.
“An appraisal was performed on this property, which is where the amount of $698,340 comes from,” Boyles told the council. He described the land as “undeveloped.”
The inert landfill, down Landfill Drive from Lakeview Road on the north end of town, receives yard waste and construction demolition and debris, such as boards and masonry. Although owned by the city, it receives waste from throughout Bulloch County.
The city and county jointly own the neighboring solid waste transfer station. While a contracted hauler transports Bulloch and Statesboro’s household waste from the transfer station to a lined and monitored commercial landfill in another county, the inert landfill is an actual landfill where the relatively inert waste materials are buried.
An engineering and design company, formerly Golder Associates Inc. but now after an acquisition known as WSP, has been working with the city at the landfill site on Lakeview Road since 1993. “As engineer of record,” WSP monitors the long-closed household waste landfill and operation of the current transfer station and inert landfill, Washington noted.
Growth accelerates need
The current inert landfill could still have remaining capacity of approximately five to seven years, he said, based on input from WSP regarding current usage.
“However, the projected community growth rate will shorten this timeline considerably,” Washington wrote in the memo. “Further, the current site does not have sufficient soil to provide cover materials required to operate the inert landfill.”
So, before this land purchase, the city reportedly was having to haul in soil as cover material.
WSP previously did a study for possibly finding another landfill site, and “initial options included siting a new inert landfill in a more central geographic location” in Bulloch County, the memo states. But the final recommendation was to expand the current inert landfill by acquiring adjacent property and obtaining the necessary permits.
“In fact, WSP (has) begun preliminary engineering work in anticipation of this process, which will provide capacity life of the inert landfill of approximately 20 years,” Washington wrote.
The purchase cost and related expenses will be paid from the city-county Solid Waste Disposal Fund’s operating income and from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue authorized since the 2019 SPLOST referendum, city officials said.
New SPLOST earmark
Meanwhile, Bulloch County and its four cities have a new referendum for a six-year extension of the 1% SPLOST slated for March. From the total projected revenue of $138 million over six years, the intergovernmental agreement proposing the SPLOST extension would earmark $9.6 million for “joint solid waste projects” of the county and Statesboro, including purchasing more space in a regional, commercial landfill that accepts their household waste.