The Carter County Landfill and its director Benny Lyons is on the hunt for both property to house the Carter County Recycling Center and money to upgrade the landfill center in Roan Mountain.

During Monday night’s Landfill Committee meeting, Lyons informed the committee that the trash compactor in Roan Mountain isn’t functioning properly.

“The compactor has been there ever since I can remember, and it has a lot of wear and tear on it.”

Lyons said that the landfill is applying for a grant through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for a new compactor and bins. The price for a compactor would be $13,476 while two boxes that attach to the compactor would cost around $15,000.

The possible grant through TDEC is right around $100,000, said Lyons, who went on to say that the grant would not only help replace the old compactor but renovate the Roan Mountain landfill site altogether.

“That would give us enough funds to completely redo Roan Mountain,” said Lyons. They would actually have bathroom facilities up there which they have never had before.

“It would replace the compactor and the compactor boxes,” added Lyons. “There would be a new building, new fencing, and new pavement. If they are generous enough to give that to us, Roan Mountain will be one of the nicest facilities that you would see in the state.”

Commissioners Austin Jaynes, Sonja Culler, and Ginger Holdren, along with Carter County Mayor Rusty Barnett all visited the old OmniSource Recycling site to vet it as a possible future home for the Carter County Recycling Center. The property, which had a cost of around $600,000, was not feasible due to it being too large of an area for what is needed for a recycling center.

“Great facility if it was going to be used for four departments,” said Culler. “It was just too big for Benny (Lyons). He said he didn’t need all of that space.”

The group also looked at some property across the road from the OmniSource location. The piece of property is around $125,000 but doesn’t have the adequate space for the landfill truck to get in and out easily.

Lyons said the county’s current recycling center is owned by the City of Elizabethton and is located in an industrial area on Cherokee Park Road. Lyons went on to say due to some things the city is developing in that area, the current building that houses the Recycling Center would no longer be available in the future.   

During the Education Committee meeting that followed the landfill meeting, Hunter Elementary teacher Amy Grubb spoke to the committee about her and some of her fellow teachers’ efforts to raise money for a new school sign.

The current sign located off of Highway 91 is placed near a burned out trailer which some Hunter Elementary faculty feel is an unsightly location for the school sign.

Grubb said that the group would also like to upgrade the sign to an electronic one to make it easier to display important information regarding the school.

The estimated cost of a new sign, if purchased through Florida company Stewart Signs, would be $12,300. The teachers have raised $9,500.