Resident sounds rallying cry for dump

Concerns about trash piling up in ditches and a firm belief in people-power drove Bigfork resident Charlotte French to send an email to everyone she knows asking them to rally against Flathead County’s decision to close the Bigfork green box site on Montana 83.

“So many of my friends think it’s a done deal and there’s no fighting it,” French said. “I am trying to save that dump.”

Since 2008, Flathead County has slowly been closing and consolidating county green box sites to bring them up to par with Montana standards and make them more efficient. Bigfork’s green box site is next on the list of sites to close. All the people who use the Bigfork site will be diverted to the one in Creston and/or the one along Montana 82 outside of Somers.

French is worried that with the closure of the site excess trash from people who don’t want to drive the extra few miles will end up on the highway and in the woods.

“They still have a place in Swan Lake that’s filled with stuff from years ago when their dump was taken away,” French said.

According to Flathead County Solid Waste director Dave Prunty, in addition to the fact that it’s not fenced, gated or manned, the Bigfork green box site is a major safety issue because of how small it is.

Dump trucks don’t have very much space to get to the dumpsters with, and when they are at the site working, they block the right of way for other vehicles on the site.

Fencing and gating the Bigfork site would make it even smaller, because the land directly around the site is private property. And as it is, the county is leasing the site from the Montana Department of Transportation and doesn’t own it.

“We’re using every square foot we can get, there’s no more room to get,” Prunty said.

French’s answer to safety concerns is to make the site bigger by purchasing or leasing the land directly around it from the private property owners. Prunty said the solid waste department hasn’t considered that option yet because thus far they have been intent on closing it.

“It’s all possible, but it would be difficult,” Prunty said. “I don’t think the district can absorb those expenses without having a rate increase.”

Every Flathead County resident pays an $80.73 solid waste assessment each year for the county to operate all of the green box sites. The assessment has been raised twice in the last 12 years. Having the additional expense of just manning the Bigfork site would cause the county to have to raise the assessment. If they bought land, the county would have to raise the assessment even further.

French thinks all these issues can be ironed out if enough Bigfork residents take interest and make themselves heard. For French’s part, she plans on doing that at the next Flathead County Solid Waste Board meeting on Dec. 3 at 3 p.m. During the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, members of the public are welcome to speak on things they feel strongly about.

“If you’re going to propose that there’s a problem, you have to propose that these are the solutions,” French said.