GAINESVILLE - Hall County's Public Works Director Ken Rearden said ever since he came to work for the county five years ago, he's known there has been a problem with the leachate system at the county landfill.
However, his hands have been tied, he said, as he tries to find the parts to keep the system working, knowing the county still owes $1.08 million dollars on it. In addition, said Rearden, the equipment has aged to a point where parts are no longer available to repair the system.
At Monday afternoon's Hall County Commission work session, Rearden told commissioners he's at a point where action has to be taken.
Rearden said the commission in office in 2000 took out a loan with the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) for more than $2.1 million. What he's hoping to do now is refinance the loan.
"We addressed that loan with GEFA - their rate when we took out the loan in 2000 was 4.92%, they're 2.4% today's rate," said Rearden. "They've [GEFA] never done this before, but they can possibly refinance the initial loan and add to the loan to give us the extra [money] we need to build this facility."
Rearden said he needs an answer by GEFA by the end of the month, since the system is struggling and the county is renting a system to process the leachate. In addition, the county is spending money for someone to haul off the sludge to another landfill outside the county.
Thursday
October 24th, 2024
4:29AM
