Operations at the Citizens’ Collection Station at the Orange County landfill will be changing in March. Fees for use of the landfill by citizens following both Harvey and Imelda were dropped and the hours of operation were extended to six days a week to allow citizens to dispose of debris from their properties caused by the two storms.
County Judge John Gothia speaking on KOGT’s People in the Know on Monday said that will change on Tuesday, March 3. The Citizens’ Collection Station will begin charging fees again and be open only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Starting on March 3 the landfill will have a list of standard fees to be charged for different items. Boards will be erected to show the cost for all the items that will be accepted at the Citizens’ Collection Station. “We’ve tried to hold it off as free as long as we could just to make sure the people with Imelda stuff had that opportunity to use it, but that has dropped off significantly so we’re ready to kick that back off March 3,” Gothia stated.
Citizens still have over a month to dispose of any items from Imelda at the landfill for free before the fees go into effect. The landfill sticker and the landfill payment cards will not be required after March 3. Orange County citizens are the only ones allowed to use the landfill and their vehicle registration stickers will show they are residents in the county.
Payment of fees to use the landfill will now be done at the Citizens’ Collection Station with cash which will be more convenient than going to the building on FM 1442. The cards issued for the landfill that are still valid will be honored through the end of the current calendar year, but will not be sold anymore.
Orange County has received the bulk of its money from FEMA for debris caused by Harvey. Gothia advised, “The rest of the FEMA money that we’re waiting on now is the stuff that’s for our infrastructure projects, and we just got approval on moving forward with some of those projects on the roads.”
Gothia will meet with the FEMA officials one more time to finalize which road repairs will be covered by those funds. The county is required to wait on the federal money before beginning any work on the projects can begin in order to be eligible for the funding.
One road that is already having construction being done is Interstate 10 in the east end of the county by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The goal is to make the freeway better, but right now traveling on it can be almost hazardous with the rough condition of the road’s surface.
A meeting with Donald Smith the new District Engineer in Beaumont for TxDOT has been requested by Gothia. “I think what we’re trying to do is to get him in a car or a vehicle and drive him down that road because he is new to the area he’s only been here for a few months so he could see the issues and the dangers that everybody’s facing with that road,” Gothia explained.
At the conclusion of Gothia’s interview for People in the Know on KOGT the county judge mentioned the surprise inspection of the Orange County Jail that occurred earlier in January. Gothia praised Sheriff Keith Merritt and his excellent staff at the jail for running it so efficiently and once again doing well in passing the state inspection.
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