Taxes and spending in a recession economy have emerged as the top issue in the race for Haywood County commissioner this year.

Challengers vying for a seat on the board have jumped on the bandwagon of critics who have continually called into question county spending.

While county cut its budget dramatically in the face of the recession — from scaling back library hours to slashing public school maintenance —it wasn’t enough to avoid a small property tax hike last year.

As a result, commissioners caught flak for raising the tax rate by 1.7 cents amidst one of the worst recessions to strike the country. Critics claim the board is spending beyond taxpayers’ means.

But others criticized commissioners for making excessive cuts and slashing millions from the budget. Nonprofits in particular were hit hard after being completely dropped by the county.

“It’s something we had to do to reduce the tax burden on the people in the county,” said incumbent Kirk Kirkpatrick, adding that commissioners have cut the budget almost $9 million in the last four years — a 10 percent reduction. He anticipates the county board will have to make even more cuts over the next four years.

Democratic candidate Michael Sorrells said the commissioners could have reduced the budget further. “They cut the least painful things,” Sorrells said. “Well, now we’re going to have to look at the hard parts.”

But Upton says commissioners have already worked thoroughly and diligently to come up with the best possible budget. “[We] have put in many hours, most of it televised,” Upton said. “...I think this group has done an excellent job of balancing the budget and also listening to our citizens.”

Republican candidate Denny King disagreed. He pointed to big ticket items as the culprit: commissioners bought the abandoned Wal-Mart to replace crumbling DSS offices, expanded the landfill, bailed the Haywood County fairgrounds out of debt and tacitly signed off on a new Haywood Community College building.

“In my opinion the biggest thing that has caused taxes to go up is we are borrowing a lot of money. Every time we borrow money, budgets have to be cut or taxes have to be raised,” King said. “I think we will just really have to reduce the money we borrow on projects. If we don’t, the county services are going to have to continue to be cut and property taxes will have to continue to go up.”

Before tackling the budget, Republican David Bradley vows to communicate frequently with Western North Carolina’s delegation in Raleigh to underline the county’s needs. “Get more of a two-way conversation,” Bradley said. “Voice our concerns, not just carry out what’s dictated.”

With the recession likely to continue, Bradley said he would focus on diversifying the local economy. Tourism is always one of the hardest-hit industries during economic downturns, so Bradley wants to focus more on promoting emerging industries, like organic farming and technology-based business.

Meanwhile, Republican Tom Freeman said he would look at unconventional ways to save money, such as turning off the lights after hours at the historic courthouse and justice center. “I know it’s just lights, but it adds up,” Freeman said.

He would also keep employees from driving county vehicles home. If elected commissioner, Freeman would make unannounced visits to each department to see if all employees are being productive. “[Commissioners] need to go out and look, see what’s going on,” Freeman said.

The Wal-Mart debate

Earlier this year, commissioners decided to purchase the abandoned Wal-Mart in Clyde to house the Department of Social Services and Health department, both of which have long awaited moves from aging buildings. The project will cost taxpayers about $12.5 million.

This comes on top of the tens of millions dropped over the past eight years on the new justice center, a parking deck, a major school construction bond, and property on Jonathan Creek to house a future county sports complex — although not all the current commissioners were on the board at the time of these decisions.

So when the old Wal-Mart purchase came along, “it sure enough put everybody over the edge,” Bradley said.

But Kirkpatrick says that commissioners don’t spend money without thinking long and hard first.

“It’s always been tough for us to actually spend the money,” Kirkpatrick said. “We weigh the good for the county versus holding on to it.”

Incumbent Bill Upton points out that the Wal-Mart decision took commissioners two years. As the recession worsened, the property’s price became unbeatable — and no one else was picking it up.

“To me, it was our chance,” Upton said. “We couldn’t refuse.”

Even if the old DSS building were repaired, there would still be the issue of insufficient space, privacy and parking, Upton said.

While $12.5 million seems like a lot of money, constructing a building from scratch could have taken up to $30 million, Upton said. Repairing the crumbling former county hospital dating back to the 1920s and 1950s where DSS is currently housed would likewise be more expensive, commissioners asserted.

Kirkpatrick said buying the deserted Wal-Mart was a good move, considering the substantial cost of repairing and updating the old DSS headquarters, pressure from the state to bring the building up to code, and the county health building also being in disrepair.

“It also creates additional viability for stores in that area,” Kirkpatrick said, citing the gaping hole left in the strip mall when Wal-Mart pulled out.

Bradley said commissioners knew for years that the DSS building was in major disrepair, and they should have set up a separate fund to address the problem, which could have been used as a down payment on the old Wal-Mart.

Bradley said the purchase will be very beneficial in the long-term, but commissioners should have saved ahead of time.

Since funding sources are in place from the state and from a lease agreement with Tractor Supply, Sorrells, too, supports the Wal-Mart purchase.

“It was an inopportune time, but inopportune times bring opportunity,” Sorrells said. “...It appears to be a solid move.”

But Sorrells adds that some of the commissioners’ spending has addressed wants and not needs in some cases. He pointed to the million-dollar purchase of a 22-acre Jonathan Creek property for a future county sports complex.

“Should that property have been bought? Probably not,” said Sorrells.

Freeman opposes the Wal-Mart purchase. As a self-employed building contractor for 25 years, Freeman says there was nothing majorly wrong with the old hospital building. It needed “cosmetic work,” a new roof and handicapped access to bring it up to state codes.

King agreed.

“It could be renovated and brought up for less money than what the Wal-Mart building cost,” King said. King said he would have voted against buying the old Wal-Mart, but that ideally it would been sent to the people for a vote. “It is their money,” King said.

Tackling trash

County commissioners are considering an overhaul of Haywood’s current trash operations. Earlier this year, they decided to shut down the recycling pick line, laying off employees who manually sorted recyclables. Instead the county now sells loads of recycling in bulk without being sorted first. Commissioners also privatized operation of the convenience centers, where county residents who don’t have curbside trash pick-up can drop off their garbage.

As part of the ongoing overhaul, some commissioners want to shut down the transfer station, where town and private haulers take their loads of trash rather than making the long trek to the White Oak landfill. Commissioners are also considering turning over landfill operations to a private company, including selling off space in the landfill.

Kirkpatrick said the next county board must continue examining the efficiency of the county’s trash operations. It’s become increasingly expensive for the county to comply with strict environmental standards and replace aging equipment, and commissioners must scour for savings.

“You have to continually analyze what’s going to be best for the whole,” Kirkpatrick said.

At this point, Kirkpatrick opposes closing the transfer station.

“I’ll have to be convinced otherwise, and I’m not saying I can’t be,” said Kirkpatrick, who wants to maintain an open dialogue with towns before making a final decision. “What we want to do is what’s cheapest and do what’s best.”

Sorrells said he has already been researching and visiting the solid waste department. While he hasn’t come to a conclusion yet on whether the transfer station should be closed or the landfill privatized, Sorrells said making trash operations more viable is essential.

“The users are probably going to have to pay its way in order to make it more efficient,” Sorrells said of the transfer station, should it remain open.

Shutting it down has drawn ire from towns and private haulers as a double-standard, since convenience centers used by residents out in the county would continue to be subsidized.

Upton is still undecided on which path to take. The issue is a complicated one, so he’s waiting on more information despite all the research that’s already been done. “I feel like I’m back in school,” Upton said. “I think the more we research, the more we study and the more we listen to people, the better decisions.”

Bradley said commissioners must be open-minded when tackling the trash problem. Private companies will have a knack for solid waste operations since that is their main focus. As of now, Bradley is also undecided on the transfer station.

Freeman is adamantly opposed to privatizing only parts of any county department or closing the transfer station. “That’s just running from the problem,” said Freeman, adding that the issue is one of proper management.

King said the county needs to study the issue more and that he doesn’t know enough yet to say what the right thing is.

Commissioners vs. HCC

For months, county commissioners were at odds with Haywood Community College over new construction and maintenance needs at the college. Commissioners eventually approved the $10.3 million professional crafts building after accusing HCC of overspending on a green design and showcase features. A quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters to fund new construction and expansions at HCC should be used responsibly, commissioners said.

Kirkpatrick said he and fellow commissioners asked the tough questions. Though he’s not “completely comfortable” with HCC moving ahead on its craft building, the college board of trustees unanimously stood by their recommendation that it be approved.

“I don’t think it’s my responsibility to usurp their responsibility as a board,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s their money.”

As a school board member for six years, Sorrells supports the community college’s pursuit of a craft building but questions putting so much of the quarter-cent sales tax proceeds in one basket.

Upton said it is “mighty tough” to vote against education. He felt better about the purchase after the HCC board of trustees came to a consensus. “I feel pleased that we moved on that one,” Upton said.

Bradley said the HCC craft building needed to be replaced, but its size should have remained under 20,000-square-feet so the college could avoid more stringent environmental regulations for larger buildings.

Freeman said he voted for the quarter-cent sales tax, believing it would only be used to fix roads and maintain existing buildings. “What do they need that new building for?” Freeman said. “Fix the ones that are there.”

If the economy was booming, the new craft building might be acceptable, Freeman said. For now, Freeman is wholeheartedly against the new construction.

King also said the building was too expensive and wouldn’t have given it the green light. He said rather than borrow money, the college could have saved up sales tax revenue until the building could be paid for upfront.

“I think most citizens in the county, including myself, felt like this money would be spent on a yearly basis as it comes in,” King said of the special quarter-cent sales tax.

The 9-12 factor

Bradley and King have been endorsed by the WNC Tea Party. A local offshoot of the Tea Party, known as the Haywood 9-12 Project, has been a recurring critic of commissioners during the public comment period at nearly every county meeting for the past year and a half.

Though a handful of 9-12 activists have been especially vocal, Kirkpatrick points out that its members don’t represent all 60,000 residents in Haywood County. Kirkpatrick says he has supporters as well as opponents within the ranks of the group, and he hopes all voters will research before casting their ballots. “Don’t just vote to get someone out,” Kirkpatrick said.

While some members get “extreme,” Sorrells says everyone can agree with the core principles of the 9-12 group: a small, efficient government and fiscal responsibility.

Upton said his goal has always been to listen to the people, and he doesn’t mind the 9-12 group constantly turning up at commissioner meetings.

“I haven’t taken the 9-12 Project as a negative,” Upton said. “Because we want people voicing their opinions. If we don’t hear, we don’t know.”

Bradley said the group has been consistent in calling for fiscal responsibility.

“This is a nonpolitical organization,” Bradley said. “They’re looking for people to make best use of county funds.”

King said he appreciates the endorsement.

“I am glad they did chose me. I have a lot of respect for the Tea Party,” King said.

Freeman would not comment on the group because he said he wasn’t familiar enough with them.

Upcoming challenges?

Many candidates said the budget and setting the tax rate after the property revaluation will be the two biggest challenges in the next four years. The value of lots and homes in upscale developments are expected to drop, while the value of medium priced housing will hold steady. Property taxes will be adjusted according to the new appraised values.

“I’m afraid there’s going to need to be a greater tax burden on those with less valuable properties,” Kirkpatrick said.

“It’s going to disproportionately affect the lower-income portion of the population,” Bradley agreed.

Kirkpatrick said another major hurdle will be funding the school system, which will soon suffer the absence of stimulus funds that have helped prop it up during the recession.  

With the senior citizen population set to mushroom, there will be an increasing need to  provide services to the elderly. Upton said commissioners must plan for the impending crisis.

— Staff writer Becky Johnson contrbitued to this story.

In the running

Three of the five seats on the Haywood County board are up for election this year. Commissioner Skeeter Curtis will not be running for re-election this year, meaning at least one new face will join the board come fall.

Democrats

Kirk Kirkpatrick (incumbent)

41, attorney, Waynesville

“I’ve seen the good times and the tough times. I think that experience will be helpful for this county in the next four years.”

Bill Upton (incumbent)

65, retired superintendent of Haywood County Schools, Canton

“I feel like I listen...I’m sensitive to the needs of the people.”

Michael Sorrells

54, owner of service station, convenience store and cafe, Waynesville.

“I’m very knowledgeable about Haywood County...I understand how government works, and I’m already educating myself to be in the position.”

Republicans

David Bradley, 44, sales, Clyde

“I try to look long-term versus short-term...We can’t always take a hammer to the project.”

Tom Freeman, 53, self-employed building contractor, Waynesville

“I’ve had my own successful business for 25 years...When projects come up...I could go look at them, give my opinion on it and go from there.”

Denny King, 53 manufacturing engineer, Beaverdam

“I am in favor of a limited government to keep our taxes low in the county.”

This weekend, doors to one private studio after another in Haywood County will be flung wide open to everyone curious enough to venture in.

During the two-day Haywood Open Studios Tours, visitors get an intimate glimpse into the studios and galleries where local artists create their stunning pieces. Tour-goers will also witness live art demonstrations at participating studios and galleries.

To coincide with the Haywood Open Studios Tour, Gallery 86 will host a show featuring work by each tour artist until Saturday, Oct. 16.

Participants can see and purchase examples of the artists’ work, pick up a map, and make plans for visiting the studios and galleries during the tour weekend.

Tour maps containing artist studio and gallery information are available now at Gallery 86 as well as other locations throughout the area including Visitor’s Centers on I-26 and I-40.

Visit www.haywoodarts.org for information.

Mark your calendar

The 5th Annual Haywood Open Studios Tour will give the public a peek at local artists’ studios from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2, and from noon until 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 3. The tour weekend kicks off with a preview show and artist’s reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1, at Gallery 86 in Waynesville. HOST is presented by The Haywood County Arts Council.

Featured artists

Jo Ridge Kelley • Waynesville
“Nature’s beauty and power have been my muses since I was a child. I paint not only to capture those fleeting moments of light and shadow across the landscape, but to create in the viewer the emotional response I experience in nature.”

Susan Livengood • Waynesville
Susan has been a potter, jewelry designer, llama trekker, landscape designer, and innkeeper. Since she and her husband sold their inn in 2005, she has been able to focus on painting and writing again.

Grace Cathey • Waynesville
Grace’s daily experiences with the beauty of nature around her are translated into her metal sculpture, leaving a bit of her spirit in each piece.

Cathey Bolton • Waynesville
Cathey’s pottery balances both the natural and structural world to complete functional vibrant pottery that evokes her love of nature and architecture in every unique handmade piece.

Veronica Von Zwehl • Waynesville
Veronica is an award winning fiber artist creating art quilts and original wall hangings featuring a uniquely creative combination of color, texture and value. Her inspiration comes from the structures, patterns, shapes and shadings found in nature.

John Gernandt • Waynesville
Following the pathway established by both his great-grandfather and grandfather, he’s been building furniture for 30 years. Making furniture has widened his perspective on art history and his appreciation for the furniture masters of the past.

Suzanne Gernandt • Waynesville
As a textile artist, Suzanne painstakingly weaves her fabrics, then delights in dying, cutting, painting, embroidering and reassembling them into elaborate textile masterpieces.

Allen Davis • Waynesville
Allen’s work has value for buyers because he focuses on function. “Creating artful, one-of-a-kind items from nature’s bounty with a utilitarian purpose seems to be the best of both worlds: practical yet beautiful works of art.”

Main Street Artists Co-Op • Waynesville
Twenty-one artists are featured at the Co-Op: Char Avrunin, Nancy Howell Blevins, Gretchen Clasby, Jeanne Colburn, George Dixon, Pam Haddock, Rebecca Hellman, Sandy Lampl, Steve Lampl, Steve McMahan, Anita Painter, Terance Painter, Margaret Roberts, Lynne Rose, Sharon Smith, Bill Smith, David Stone, Carolyn Taylor, Terry Thompson, Dan Wright and Wendy Wright.

Desmond Suarez • Canton
Desmond creates a variety of crafts, from Shaker inspired wood furniture and clocks to handmade candles, each made with the motto of creating “simply the best.”

Kim Ross: Sleeping Stones Gallery • Waynesville
“Pottery is an integral part of my life. As a youth I enjoyed warm summer days playing in the mud, making shapes. Now I am living my dream. I specialize in hand-built and
wheel-thrown pottery using different clay bodies and an array of glaze colors.”

Liz Spear • Waynesville
“I weave cloth using cotton and rayon mill end yarns, then cut and sew functional, classic garments, appropriate for office or casual wear. My designs are a combination of original and commercial patterns.”

Nancy Dunn Lawrence • Waynesville
Nancy works in her home studio with all the things she enjoys most: colors, pattern, paper, threads, words, and the beauty of mountains and lake outside her door. She believes that every beautiful thing makes the world a little better.

Laurel Tewes • Canton
Laurel enjoys the challenge of painting murals. “They are triple the difficulty of painting on canvas. They must look good close up as well as far away.”

Mari Conneen • Waynesville
“In my work I visualize an imaginary line and combine the line with fragments of imagination, thoughts and objects, often strengthening or quieting that line by transforming one medium into another.”

Deborah Bartz: Haywood Fiber Arts Program • Waynesville
The Fiber Arts program is part of the Professional Crafts Program at Haywood Community College. The fiber program encourages original design in all areas of product development and production. “We strive to create products that show the beauty of everyday objects.”

Theodore Dake: MotoFab Metalworks • Waynesville
Ted’s 25-year metal working career has encompassed everything from submarine parts to widgets. His recent move to the mountains has inspired his creative side. His plasma cut metal art reflects the country lifestyle and is colored with various patinas and stains to create unique textures on the metal surfaces.

Gretchen Clasby • Waynesville
Gretchen has been a full-time artist and gallery owner for more than 40 years. Working in watercolors and acrylics, her favorite subjects are children, birds, flowers and small wildlife.

Controversy over closing down the Haywood County trash transfer station has resurfaced now that commissioners have put the idea back on the front burner.

County commissioners postponed a decision earlier this year on whether to shut down the transfer station but promised to take up the issue in coming months when they could devote more time to it. It’s now back on the table as commissioners weigh whether to contract out landfill and trash operations to a private firm.

Perry Samuels, the main driver for Jim’s Garbage Service, dreads making the trek all the way to White Oak landfill should the county close the transfer station. It could be the death knell for Samuels, one of a dozen or so trash haulers in the county who pick up garbage every week for a fee.

The extra distance for each haul would add hours to his day and cost more gas, neither of which he can afford.

Theoretically, trash haulers could pass along the extra costs to customers. But Samuels said it wouldn’t fly.

“I would say if we raised our rates, a lot of people would quit us,” Samuels said. He charges $20 a month for weekly trash pick-up — and that’s already too much for some people. Many customers dropped trash pick-up thanks to recession-inspired penny-pinching.

Another problem is that the landfill is not suitable for high volumes of traffic. There are no clear roads through the landfill. Instead, trucks must navigate giant piles of trash strewn across acres and acres of a mud flat in order to dump their loads. Even a mild rain renders it impassable, so trash trucks must be towed by bulldozers.

“You have to get drug in with a bulldozer and drug out with a bulldozer,” Samuels said. The frame on one of his older trucks broke during such an operation, and he can’t afford to buy a new one.

“If we had to buy a new truck, we would just have to quit,”

Samuels said. “We are operating on a shoestring. I got one truck held together with duct tape, baling wire and shoestring. Come out and take a look if you don’t believe me.”

Trash trucks for the town of Waynesville have also been damaged when being towed by dozers, incurring “expensive repairs,” according to Town Manager Lee Galloway.

But county commissioners are eyeing the savings to be gained from shutting the transfer station — roughly $800,000 a year. They argue that the transfer station only benefits a segment of the population: those who have town trash pick-up or pay a private hauler.

Stephen King, the county solid waste director, said all the taxpayers are subsidizing a service used by some.

“We are trying to do what is best for the entire county,” King said. “If the towns chose to go around and pick up, that is their choice. I can’t change what we do because the towns want that service.”

If the towns and private haulers want to keep the transfer station open, they can pay for it themselves, he said.

“From a taxpayer standpoint if you could save $20 off your household fee by having the towns pay for that service themselves, do you not think county taxpayers would want to do that?” King said.

Double standard

There is a catch, however. The county would continue to subsidize convenience centers where residents without door-to-door drop their trash.

If the county will continue to operate convenience centers free for those outside town limits, why not operate the transfer station for those who live in town, argued Galloway.

There are two legs to the trash journey for everyone. The first leg is getting your trash to a central collection point.

For people without trash pick-up, that means dropping it at a convenience center. For those who live in town or pay a private hauler, their trash is taken to the transfer station.

The second leg of the trash journey — the journey the rest of the way to the White Oak landfill — is picked up by the county, whether it’s from the convenience centers or the transfer station.

Towns argue that closing the transfer station creates a double standard for town residents versus county residents. They both pay the same landfill fee on their county tax bill of $92 a year. Yet one would continue to have their trash journey subsidized and the other would not.

The towns have protested the plan as inequitable, but Galloway said the towns have had a difficult time making their case to county officials.

“The question was asked, ‘Why should county residents subsidize hauling trash to White Oak for town residents,’” Galloway recounted of his meeting with county officials. “We said, ‘Wait a minute … we would still be subsidizing the cost of transporting trash for the people who use the convenience centers.’”

Galloway understands the county’s quest for savings.

“The bottom line is garbage is a terribly expensive proposition,” Galloway said. “I am in total sympathy with the county in that regard. But whatever they do needs to be fair to everybody and fair to the entire county. It is not a Waynesville problem. It is a problem for all 60,000 people.”

But commissioners can’t shake the prospect of saving $800,000 a year.

“The savings are real,” Commissioner Kevin Ensley said. “The general public is looking for us to run an efficient government.”

Ensley said the feedback from constituents is overwhelmingly in favor of closing the transfer station. In fact, they don’t understand why there’s even a debate over it.

“They see it as a no brainer,” Ensley said.

From a strictly economic viewpoint, Commissioner Bill Upton agreed. But there are two sides, Upton said.

“I guess I am in the middle again,” Upton said.

Not sustainable

The cost of operating the transfer station is $800,000 and the cost of convenience centers is $680,000.

King said a costly overhaul would be needed to keep the transfer station going, however. Right now, the transfer station is a jerry-rigged operation.

“Our transfer station is in dire straits,” King said.

Trash dumped off by town trucks and private haulers must be repacked in a tractor-trailer and hauled to White Oak. Ideally, trash would be compacted and baled to fit as much as possible in each load bound for White Oak. But the baler at the transfer station rusted and broke from age. A new one would cost $1.8 million, King said.

Another option is to pack trash into tractor-trailers from above. That’s the way it’s done at the transfer stations in Macon and Jackson counties, and as a result, the tractor-trailers can hold 15 to 20 tons.

But at Haywood’s transfer station, the setup doesn’t allow tractor-trailer trucks to be filled from above. Instead, trash is merely shoveled up into piles by front-end loaders and pushed into the back of tractor trailer.

Workers can only fill the tractor-trailer about halfway before trash starts slipping back out. So trucks head to White Oak with only 7 or 8 tons, requiring twice as many trips.

“Every time our trucks leave out they are less than half full,” King said.

It also takes more manpower to shovel and push trash in the back door of the tractor-trailer rather than dumping in from above.

“We have to upgrade the transfer station. We cannot continue to operate the way we are operating,” King said.

But closing the transfer station would mean making upgrades to the landfill so town and commercial trucks can get in and out.

“We would request that appropriate facilities be constructed so that dumping can be done without encountering the mud and damage to these expensive vehicles,” Galloway wrote to the county in a letter expressing concerns over the plan.

There’s another problem: snow days. The road in and out of the landfill is steep, and last winter there were several days it wasn’t passable. Garbage was stockpiled at the transfer station until the landfill entry road thawed.

Macon also charges towns

Like Haywood, Macon County also has a transfer station. It saves private haulers and town trash trucks in Highlands from making the long trip down the mountain to the county landfill. But it costs them a transfer fee of $8.75 a ton.

Chris Stahl, solid waste director for Macon County, doesn’t feel bad passing along the cost of transporting trash from the transfer station to the landfill to the town residents.

“If you are saving someone an extra 30 minutes round trip by making that trip for them, I think it is proper for them to pay,” Stahl said. “The trash isn’t disposed of until it gets all the way to the landfill. If you are stopping somewhere short of that and the county is picking up the tab to go the rest of the way, the county is subsidizing that.”

The county apparently has no qualms about subsidizing the trash dropped off at Macon County’s eight convenience centers, however, which is hauled the rest of the way to the landfill on the county’s dime.

But Stahl doesn’t see the convenience centers in the same light as the transfer station.

“That hauling is an extra step that some people use and some people don’t. I don’t think it is fair to spread that cost out to everybody else,” Stahl said.

In addition to paying an extra transfer fee, the town of Highlands also chipped in to build the transfer station.

Haywood Commissioner Mark Swanger said the county and towns can work through the debate reasonably.

“This is not insurmountable,” Swanger said “Everybody needs to wait and see what kind of plan can evolve.”

But the towns aren’t content to simply wait. They can’t afford to, Galloway said. Instead, Waynesville is already putting together contingency plans.

“This fall will look at what our costs are to go elsewhere and possibly do our own thing,” Galloway said.

The town is already calculating its options — among them hauling trash to a private landfill in Buncombe instead.

“We have to look at those alternatives,” Galloway said.

Another option is for Waynesville to build its own transfer station, and allow the towns of Canton and Clyde, as well as private haulers, to share it.

The county may also be willing to keep the transfer station open if the town picks up the cost. But Galloway doesn’t like the double-standard.

“It would only be fair if we paid at the transfer station if people who use the convenience centers also paid,” Galloway said.

What is the transfer station?

The transfer station is a trash drop-off site in Clyde where town garbage trucks and commercial haulers can dump their loads instead of making the long trek to the White Oak landfill. The trash is shoveled with front-end loaders into the back of tractor-trailers and transported the rest of the way to the landfill by the county.

The recession bought Haywood County a little extra life in the landfill, thanks to less construction waste and commercial trash.

A pit that everyone thought would be full by now still has more than a year left. But some of the credit is also due to the county’s new solid waste director, Stephen King, who’s proved a zealot for recycling in his three years on the job.

Last year, recycling was a break-even operation. The money made selling recyclables covered the cost of handling, sorting and disposing of them.

Trash, on the other hand, is a $4 million per year cost.

“I can’t generate revenue off the stuff we put in the ground,” King said. “I have to come up with a way to manage it, not just for that day, but for eternity.”

It drives King crazy to see things that could be recycled buried in the earth at such a high cost.

“You tell me where the priority should be,” King said.

“Could you imagine if everybody devoted more effort to recycling? We wouldn’t have to be coming up with solutions to deal with this.”

King’s preaching — as well as the glaring line item in the county’s budget every year — prompted Commissioner Kevin Ensley to finally start recycling. He’s so into it now that he plays the role of recycling police with other family members — even recycling things like cardboard paper towel tubes and the boxes that toothpaste come in. He’s cut his household trash from five to six bags a week to only two.

“I don’t think I am going to save the planet by recycling, but I know I am saving my tax money,” Ensley said.

In a personal experiment, King split open people’s trash bags to see how much was getting thrown away that could be getting recycled. At least 50 percent of what’s being thrown away could be recycled instead.

“Why are we digging more holes to put recyclables in?” King said

Haywood County commissioners are deciding whether to sell off space in the county’s landfill, allowing trucks from elsewhere to dump their garbage here for a fee.

There’s only 30 to 40 years of life left in the landfill. Selling space will obviously shorten the life. Commissioners have to decide whether the money to be made is worth it.

“This is a very serious decision,” said Commissioner Skeeter Curtis. “We need to make absolutely certain what we are doing here because it is very, very important.”

The landfill was bought and built on the taxpayers’ dime, and filling it up with other people’s trash could cost the county later.

But the thought of making a couple of million a year selling landfill space — enough to offset the county’s own landfill costs — is too tempting to ignore.

“I think right now we have an asset, and we would be wise to explore every possibility of maximizing it,” said Commissioner Mark Swanger.

Commissioners have pledged to look before they leap, however.

“If we fill up our landfill too quickly, then what? Where does the future lie?” asked Commissioner Bill Upton. “We have a great resource because so many other places don’t have a landfill.”

Stephen King, the county’s solid waste director, isn’t overly concerned about the day Haywood’s landfill runs out of space, however. By then there will be other ways to deal with trash, he said.

“I foresee that burying trash in the ground is not going to be the only option 10 or 15 years down the line,” King said.

See also: A simpler solution

Taxpayers fork over $1.3 million a year to run the landfill, plus another $1.1 million annually for five years to pay for building a new pit (see “Trash budget breakdown”).

Swanger is optimistic the landfill costs could not only be wiped from the county’s budget, but the county could actually make money.

Selling space in the landfill is part of a larger discussion about turning over landfill operations to a private firm. Companies interested in running the landfill have until the end of the week to submit their proposals.

Any agreement would take the form of a long-term contract, perhaps as long as the life of the landfill itself.

“They would almost be like the owner in a way,” Commissioner Kevin Ensley said.

For-profit landfill ventures are nothing new. Several large trash companies operate chains of private landfills across a multi-state area, and that’s who will likely be interested in taking over Haywood’s landfill.  

A few months ago, the county outsourced to a private firm the operation of its 10 trash drop-off points known as convenience centers. The county saved $145,000 a year by turning convenience centers over to a private company rather than operate them in-house.

See also: Haywood’s quest for trash savings dumps costs on towns

Upton said there is no harm in seeing what the private trash companies offer.

“I would like to see if someone could operate a facility more efficiently than we do,” Upton said. But, “We need to move slowly and continue to look at both sides. I worry about what I don’t know might bite me.”

The county could be offered a sweet deal now to give up control of its landfill. But once the county is out of the trash business, it could be held hostage by changing terms and rising rates.

Swanger said a contract would be written meticulously to protect the county, which has already engaged a special attorney who’s an expert at landfills.

“To truly know the benefit we have to wait for the (proposals) and not just speculate,” Swanger said. “The (proposals) may lead us to say ‘This isn’t going to work.’”

Doing the math

Haywood is wading into a dilemma many others have faced: run your own landfill or ship your trash elsewhere. The choice pits big upfront costs against long-term savings.

Jackson and Swain counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opt to ship their trash to mega landfills in South Carolina and Georgia.

“Short term it is cheaper because you don’t have the cost of building that landfill,” said Chad Parker, solid waste director in Jackson County. “It’s really hard to site a landfill in mountainous terrain. We don’t have any available land without spending quite a bit of money.”

Haywood and Macon counties — which already have landfills — find it cheaper to run their own since they already have the land.

Swanger thinks the days of building new landfills are over in the mountains. The county had a hard time 20 years ago finding somewhere to build the current landfill in White Oak — a tract that was large enough, removed from any neighbors and free of environmental constraints.

But the greater hurdle is a state moratorium on permitting new landfills. To some, the moratorium sounds like all the more reason for Haywood to guard what space it has left in its own landfill.

Swanger says it is just the opposite.

“The people with the state know there is trash being generated every day. You can’t continue to take it to neighboring states,” Swanger said. “What that tells you is there must be other plans in the works.”

That other plan is likely a trash incinerator — a giant one that would serve the whole region.

If the state halts the use of landfills and imposes a shift to regional trash incinerators, any space left in Haywood’s landfill could be left on the table. So one theory is that the county might as well make hay on its landfill while it can.

Can Haywood compete?

Private landfills in Georgia and South Carolina — where large tracts of flat land are plentiful — are dirt cheap compared to the per ton fee charged by landfills in mountain counties. Dump fees in the $30 a ton range are common, compared to twice that in the mountains.

Jackson County pays just $20 a ton to dump trash at a private landfill run by Waste Management in Homer, Ga.

The landfill takes in 2,000 tons a day — a volume that dwarfs the 150 tons a day seen at Haywood’s landfill.

The landfill is a total of 470 acres. It has 20 years of life left, but the company has already bought another 484 acres right next door, said Charlie Claws, district manager for Waste Management in northeast Georgia.

Claws’ landfills are cheaper for a couple of reasons: the economy of scale that goes with such a mega operation and slacker environmental regulations.

Claws said the cost of equipment would be hard for a small landfill to amortize. A compactor with big wheels and spikes to compress the trash costs $800,000 and only lasts five years. A basic dozer costs $650,000.

The same principle applies to labor. Claws has a staff of 10 at the landfill: five equipment operators, two mechanics, two in the scale house and one supervisor. Haywood has 9 workers — even though it does one-tenth the volume of trash.

“Can cities and counties do it? Yeah they can, but it is like anything else: you have more manpower and equipment than you need,” Claws said.

Claws also balked at how much Haywood is paying to construct a new section of the landfill. It costs him $250,000 an acre. Haywood is paying $500,000 an acre for a new pit under construction. King said it costs more to build landfills in North Carolina because of more stringent regulations.

“They are not regulated the way we are regulated,” he said of Georgia.

Haywood’s new lined pit will cost nearly $5 million and will last eight to nine years at the current rate of trash disposal.

The life of the cell might only be eight years, but it is laying a foundation for the future. Down the road, when the lateral footprint of the landfill can’t grow anymore, there will still be room to go up. But the base has to be built first, King explained.

But the questions remains whether Haywood can compete with the low per ton rates of landfills out of state.

Right now, Haywood would have to charge more than $44 a ton to break even. At $44 a ton, the county couldn’t compete. Besides, Haywood doesn’t want to merely break even on the trash. It defeats the purpose of selling space in the landfill in the first place. The whole point is to make enough profit to offset the cost of its own trash operations.

But the per ton cost of handling trash will get cheaper if the volume increases.

“Landfills are volume driven. The more volume they get, the cheaper it is to operate,” King said.

Plus, a private company may be able to run the landfill for less.

Claws estimated that Haywood will need to take in 600 tons a day to realize economies of scale. At that rate, however, the landfill’s life would be drastically shortened to as little as 10 more years.

Commissioners will soon have to weigh the pros and cons of cost savings versus the life of the landfill. The question is how much space is the county willing to give up in order to reap the financial returns.

“I think that threshold exists, but I don’t know exactly what it is,” Swanger said.

Haywood’s trash budget breakdown

Total budget    $4.7 million

Convenience centers    $680,000

Transfer station    $800,000

Material recovery center    $200,000

Landfill    $1.3 million

Recycling    $450,000

Loan payment on landfill expansion

$1.16 million

A major remodeling job to convert the abandoned Wal-Mart in Clyde to house the Haywood County Department of Social Services could get underway by November. This rendering by Asheville firm Padgett & Freeman Architects shows how the dreary big-box storefront will get a new façade more fitting with the mountains. Contractors are now bidding on the $12.5 million project. The 115,000-square-foot superstore will also serve as home for Haywood’s health department, planning and erosion control, building inspections and environmental health. Commissioners bought the Wal-Mart primarily to move DSS from its crumbling building, which would have required millions to fix up. In August, the county locked down a 40-year rural development loan, funded with federal stimulus money through the USDA, to pay for the project.

Deputy Gregory Wood was looking forward to a mundane Monday morning manning the metal detector at the Haywood County courthouse when a woman came in with some strange news: a snake had taken up residence in the elevator of the parking deck.

Needless to say, when the woman saw the big, black snake curled up in the corner, she opted to take the stairs. Wood said he didn’t doubt her tale for a second.

“We get strange things around here all the time,” he said.

So Wood, along with fellow Deputy Russell Bryson, headed out to see for themselves. They hit the call button for the elevator, and when the doors opened, there it was — a big, black snake nearly four feet long.

They realized right away the snake didn’t get in there on its own.

“It couldn’t have crawled in there before the doors closed shut on it,” Bryson said.

But first things first.

“I knew I needed to get it off the elevator,” Wood said. He pulled his expandable baton from his holster and quickly pinned down the snake’s head to immobilize it. With his other hand, Wood grabbed the snake by the neck so it couldn’t turn around and bite him.

Wood paused briefly to pose while Bryson took a picture on his cell phone, and then the two released the poor critter into the grass.

Once back inside, they began reviewing surveillance footage of the parking deck. At 10:20 a.m. — about 10 minutes before the woman reported it — a man is seen walking up to the elevator and putting the snake inside. It’s possible someone rode on the elevator with the snake if they were talking on their phone or otherwise distracted, Wood said.

“We are trying to figure out if there is anything we can charge him with,” Wood said of the man. They consulted with a District Court judge to figure out what charge might be applicable. The next step would be identifying him.

Before putting the snake on the elevator, the man was walking around with it on the grounds outside the historic courthouse. Tax Collector David Francis, who works in the building, confronted the man and asked him to get rid of the snake.

Voters will have a choice between a fresh or familiar face in this year’s Haywood County sheriff’s race.

Democratic incumbent Bobby Suttles has worked law enforcement in Haywood for 35 years, including 18 years at the Haywood County Sheriff’s office.

“I know the people over here. I know this office,” said Suttles.

Suttles is relying on that tenure as the foundation for his campaign. Suttles inherited the post of top lawman 18 months ago when former Sheriff Tom Alexander retired. Now Suttles must run for the seat.

His opponent Bill Wilke, a sergeant with the Asheville Police Department, said he would bring a modern approach to the table if elected.

“I think my perspective is broader,” Wilke said. “I think I have a more contemporary outlook on how those problems need to be addressed.”

Wilke wants to provide a long-term vision for the sheriff’s office that looks 10 or 15 years from now. He will focus on modern law enforcement programs and ideas that are already working in neighboring counties.

For example, Wilke is in favor of connecting criminals with community members, such as pastors.

“They need to be given a microphone,” Wilke said.

According to Wilke, moral voices could help curb crimes such as domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Wilke also wants to stress problem-oriented policing, which asks officers to take a long-term approach to problems rather than dashing onto a crime scene. A drug house could be thoroughly investigated to determine players before taking action, for example.

Suttles said he and his deputies already look before they leap.

“You’ve got to build your case,” Suttles said.

The sheriff’s office is already working hard to combat drugs, according to Suttles. In addition, Suttles deputized officers at the Waynesville Police Department, which has its own K-9 dog, to help battle drugs.

Suttles added that law-enforcement officers from Haywood’s municipal police departments also meet monthly to discuss problems and strategies.

Fighting for resources

Recently, Haywood commissioners expressed hesitation about accepting a $220,000 grant for equipment, vehicles and two officers who would focus on traffic enforcement. The county would have to pay an increasing portion of the two traffic officers’ salaries and take full responsibility for salaries by the fourth year.

“It’s hard to understand when they want to turn down grants,” said Suttles, who has often stressed the need for more officers and newer equipment at the sheriff’s office. “Sometimes, our hands are just tied here with the commissioners. They don’t have the money.”

Wilke said he would try to compromise with commissioners over budget items, but the sheriff’s office also should wisely allocate the resources it already has.

Wilke hopes to do an assessment of operations at the sheriff’s office to make sure resources are used efficiently.

But according to Suttles, the recession, not wasteful spending, is the problem.

“We’re not frivolously spending money, but you can only do so much,” Suttles said.

During his short term, Suttles has successfully pursued grants that have brought Tasers and mobile data terminals to the Haywood sheriff’s office. Video arraignments should be available by mid-October, cutting down on officer time spent shuttling criminals between jail and the courthouse.

Rather than focus on grants, however, Wilke said he would try to generate revenue from drug seizures. Law enforcement agencies can keep a portion of the money they seize from narcotics dealers.

“You hit the drug problem in this county, and you’re going to have a great effect on ancillary crimes,” Wilke said. “It’s a win-win all the way around. We’re just not doing it right.”

Wilke said the sheriff’s office could profit more from seizing drug dealers’ assets than going after grants. Moreover, there wouldn’t be any strings attached.

After enduring months of dogged opposition over a county rule that would protect residents from nasty garbage piles on their neighbor’s property, Haywood County leaders are trying a different tack.

The county has dropped the idea of a public health rule governed by the health department and instead will draft a health ordinance. An ordinance will allow more flexibility, while a rule under the auspice of the health department had to conform with state mandates.

Haywood County Commissioner Mark Swanger recommended the new approach, which garnered unanimous support from the rest of the commissioners.

Swanger said some sort of mechanism is necessary to protect people from unhealthy situations created by neighbors.

“It has nothing to do with aesthetics or that you just have a messy yard. It would have to be a demonstrated health risk,” said Swanger.

The scrapped health rule chiefly dealt with garbage that might attract disease-carrying rodents and mosquitoes, but would have also applied to an abandoned swimming pool that had become a health risk or a chemical spill, for example.

While some opposed the spirit of the ordinance as meddling in the private property arena, others merely took issue with over-reaching enforcement and over-the-top punishment.

The rule allowed the health director to come onto private property without permission and offenders could have been charged with a class I misdemeanor.

Wording was changed to require the health director to first get a search warrant except in the case of an imminent hazard. But little could be done about the class I misdemeanor for violations, as that was the punishment mandated by the state. If written as an ordinance by the county, however, it could carry a lesser charge of a class III misdemeanor, Swanger said.

A small task force has been appointed to provide input on writing the ordinance, including two critics of the health rule in its original form.

One of those, Terry Ramey, said he hopes the new approach will help “bring people back together instead of being mad at each other.”

Ramey said too much bad blood exists between the critics of the rule and members of the health board for a compromise to be reached.

“It had gotten to a head-butting deal,” Ramey said. “It just got out of hand.”

Ramey said he is not against an ordinance in principle.

“We need something,” Ramey said. “Let’s say somebody had trash piled up and it was rotten and it had insects and stuff in it. We want something in place for situations like that. Even the people against it don’t want a really bad health hazard.”

But Ramey said the original rule left too much room for broad interpretation.

Haywood County is headed to arbitration in a lawsuit over the $8.2 million renovation to the historic courthouse.

The contractor sued the county for $2 million after being fired from the job in May 2008. The county claimed the contractor was “significantly behind schedule” and was “incapable” of finishing the job they were hired to do.

Meanwhile, KMD Construction claims it was working off inaccurate blueprints. As a result, the project took a lot longer than expected, and was more expensive.

The county refused to pay for cost overruns, however. KMD says it was left holding the bag and wants the county to pay up. The suit cites wrongful termination by the county and negligence by the county’s architect.

Last week, the county learned arbitration to settle the ongoing dispute has been scheduled for May 2011.

The county and contractor butted heads for most of the project, but the final straw came when the county learned the contractor was cutting corners that compromised the structural integrity of the building, according to court filings. Specifically, a cinder-block wall of an interior staircase at the rear of the courthouse was being put up without proper internal support.

“KMD management was aware of the unsafe, improper and defective construction and intended to cover it up,” the county claims in court filings, defending its firing of KMD.

Another construction error involved leaky conduit for electrical lines feeding an emergency generator. The conduit was not properly sealed, and leaks damaged the switch for the emergency power supply, according to the county.

In yet another mishap, kerosene heaters were left burning unattended to make drywall mud dry faster. One malfunctioned and smoke and soot got into the ventilation system and filled the building.

KMD, however, says the architectural plans were inadequate and failed to meet building code, leaving out key support beams in several places.

The construction plans also failed to reflect the condition of the historic building, such as the varying thickness of the stone exterior walls and undulating slopes in the floor, which required extensive leveling, KMD claims in its suit.

The county admits that the blueprints weren’t perfect, but that goes with the territory when making renovations to a historic 1930s-era building.

“Haywood County admits that the project designs required revisions through the course of construction to meet unknown conditions in the existing building,” wrote Bob Meynardie, an attorney representing the county, in court filings.

The county countersued the contractor, claiming it racked up additional expenses of its own during the drawn-out project. It had to pay rent on satellite office space during the renovations, pay architects for additional time and hire a scheduling consultant to keep the project on task.

The county withheld payments from the contractor to cover most of the extra costs it incurred as a result of the quagmire, while other costs were picked up by a surety bond taken out by the county as insurance against just such a scenario. As a result, the county didn’t pay any more for the project than it had budgeted originally. It was completed a year late, however.

What now?

Arbitration will bring a final resolution to the dispute and is similar to a court trial.

“The contractor will present their case, we will present our case and the arbitrators will decide whether or not to make an award to either side,” said Meynardie.

Both sides will present evidence, call witnesses and put on exhibits.

The only difference is that arbitration isn’t held before a judge. Instead, the decision rests with a three-person panel selected jointly by both sides: one chosen by the county, one by the contractor, and the third chosen jointly by the first two. The American Arbitration Association certifies architects, engineers, contractors and lawyers to serve as arbitrators. In this case, the panel will be comprised of three construction lawyers.

The architect and engineer for the project are named by KMD in the suit as well, but the county will hold the primary burden of countering KMD’s claims.

It does not appear that the county will try to point the finger at the architects and engineers in order to absolve itself.

“We believe the contractor had more responsibility for what wrong out there than anybody,” Meynardie said.

Issues with the contractor’s work were brought to the county’s attention by the architect. The architect also recommended firing KMD. But the county stands behind its decision.

“The contractor didn’t live up to its contractual obligation. We had to make our own assessment of that,” Meynardie said.

Even if the county prevails at arbitration, it will still be out the legal costs of defending itself, Meynardie said.