The proposed waste transfer station would be located on an 8.8-acre site on the southwest corner of F Avenue and Fourth Avenue in the Freeman Field Industrial Park in Seymour.
A North Vernon engineering company has been hired to complete the next phase of a $1.5 million project to help the city of Seymour deal with the rising costs of trash disposal.
That step was taken Thursday morning when the board of public works and safety approved a contract not to exceed $96,000 with FPBH Inc.
Chad Dixon, the city’s director of public works, told the board the amount of the contract was not unexpected in answer to a question from board member Dave Earley.
“He’s giving us a deal or I feel like anyway,” Dixon said of the project proposal submitted by project manager J. Shane Spicer with FPBH.
On Nov. 28, the city council approved $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan funding to pay for the construction of the waste transfer station near the city garage in the Freeman Field Industrial Park on the city’s west side.
With the station, waste will be collected from throughout the city by smaller automated waste hauling trucks and held before three loads are combined into one semitrailer to take to Rumpke’s Medora Landfill.
Dixon has said in the past that the move to a waste transfer station would free up 2,000 hours of employee time and allow for training they need to do for their jobs.
In 2021, the city trucks made 1,400 trips to the landfill, which could be lowered to under 300, he said. That would produce cost savings because some of those trucks only get 3 to 5 miles a gallon of diesel fuel.
Dixon also has said the transfer station would improve morale in part because some of the drivers make the hourlong drive more than once a day.
The contract calls for FPBH to have building and site plans ready for bidders within eight to 12 weeks to complete.
The firm also will provide a set of plans to the city for review and comment six weeks after receiving a notice to proceed.
After the meeting, Dixon said it is his hope to have the station up and running a year from now depending upon material supplies and other factors.
“At least where we could operate out of it,” he said.
He also said the city is well along in the process of working to buy the semitrailer to help lower the number of trips to the landfill and allow larger items collected to be consolidated with regular waste instead of being held.