Joe P. Asher

Staff Writer

The Harlan County Fiscal Court heard issues concerning the cleanup of illegal dumps during a recent meeting.

Harlan Solid Waste Coordinator Lakis Mavinidis informed the council about a grant available to aid in the cleanup of illegal dump sites.

“I do need your approval to apply for an illegal dump cleanup grant,” said Mavinidis.

“How much?” inquired Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop.

“As far as the amount concerned, we can’t determine that,” said Mavinidis. “We need approval to apply for the grant, that’s all we need to do at this time.”

“The state will still have to send an inspector to look at the dump site, agree with us that it’s going to cost $25,000 or $30,000, then calculate that and send all this information in,” said Mavinidis. “The first thing we need to do is to approve to apply for an illegal dump cleanup grant.”

Magistrate David Kennedy inquired about a previous attempt.

“They came into district three approximately three or four years ago, the state did, and they measured and calculated how much garbage was in these illegal dumps. We went through that whole process and nothing ever did get done,” said Kennedy.

“Actually they came here in 2001 the first time,” responded Mavinidis. “We went out for three or four days and we went to 143 illegal dumps. We are now down to approximately 23 or 24 give or take, depending on what they call a dump,” said Mavinidis.

Mavinidis said the court had previously asked for a large grant.

“We have three major dumps, one of them is the one you’re speaking of in the Tri-Cities,” said Mavinidis. “When they came back and re-did that and we applied for it, we did not receive the grant. Their reason was they didn’t have enough money and they had so many applications. We were asking for big bucks, $50,000 for one, $75,000 for another one.”

According to Mavinidis, the state is taking a stricter approach when approving such a grant.

“The 21 or 23 (illegal dumps) that we have is what they are going to be looking at. They are really getting strict about asking for an amount that they haven’t actually approved. They are going to come by and take pictures, this kind of thing,” said Mavinidis.

Mavinidis explained the grant should be applied for as soon as possible.

“They want everything to be done by Nov. 1. In October they are going to be doing a lot if inspections when they can actually see the garbage. That’s where we are on the illegal dumps,” said Mavinidis.

The grant would require the county to put up some funds.

“This grant requires 25 percent matching — it could be any kind, but it does require 25 percent,” said Mavinidis.

Magistrate Jim Roddy made a motion to apply for the grant. The motion was seconded by Magistrate Bill Moore, and was passed with no opposition.

Reach Joe P. Asher at 606-573-4510 or jasher@heartlandpublications.com