Landfill Administrative Director Rod Hastings demonstrates how residents drop their garbage in a compactor at 8 Mile Hill.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County Landfill Administrative Director Rod Hastings Thursday said his department will open a second satellite garbage disposal station around the first week of April.
The second site is along Butler Road near Yankeetown and Inglis. The satellite station is equipped with two enclosed garbage compactors, a recycling container, an open area surrounded by a concrete wall to dump limbs and tree debris and area ringed by a concrete wall to dump appliances.
Hastings said he is waiting to hire the satellite station employee before opening the station to the public. The part-time employee must go through a background check and drug screening before the Butler Road site can open for business.
The satellite station is fully equipped and ready for operations when a site employee has been hired. The public will use the site on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Hastings said the first satellite opened about six months ago at 8 Mile Hill off County Road 347 about six months ago. The site is 8 miles from the junction with State Road 24 near Cedar Key.
The 8 Mile Hill site has identical equipment to the Butler Road location and is open on the same days and times. Both sites have an office. Consumers can drive in and deposit their household garbage-free in a compactor.
The compactors are enclosed dumpsters with hydraulic compaction arms that compress three dumpsters of garbage into one. When the compactors are full they are loaded on a truck for transport to the landfill near Bronson.
In the modern era, all household garbage deposited at the landfill in Bronson is transferred by semi tractor-trailers to a regional landfill in Union County. Technically, the Levy County Landfill is known as the Levy County Transfer Station.
Most people still call it the county landfill or the county dump.
Hastings said clearing work has begun for the third satellite station on Camp Azalea Road. Many people refer to the location as the Manatee site because of its location a few miles from Manatee Springs State Park. The opening date hasn’t been set. The equipment has been purchased. The road department must clear the utility right of way before Central Florida Electric Cooperative can hook up the power.
The Manatee satellite station and the Butler Road location are expected to generate the most traffic. The density of the population along Manatee Springs Road and Camp Azalea Road, and the density of the population in Inglis and Yankeetown are expected to produce the highest traffic levels.
County officials selected the sites based on the distance consumers must travel to the landfill in Bronson and also by population levels around the site. Hastings said the 8 Mile Hill site is beginning to generate quite a bit of traffic.
“Now that people see the benefit of the satellites they like them,” Hastings said.
Hastings said he wants to collect data from the first three satellite stations for a full year to determine costs and garbage volumes. He would have to approach county commissioners to establish a fourth satellite station. He believes people in the Morriston area need a satellite garbage dumping site.
“I just need a full year to see what my numbers are; I don’t want to overload my budget. I’m 100 percent trying to help the people,” Hastings said.
The satellite stations are intended to reduce the distance people must travel to dump their household garbage. The first three satellite stations are some of the longest drives in the county. The county commission has implemented a program allowing free household garbage dumping at the landfill, but the drive isn’t cost-effective for people who have to drive 45 minutes to an hour to reach the landfill.
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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting March 17, 2020; Posted March 19, 2020
