Transporting Chatham County waste should not be a critical issue

By Rick Brownfield

Pittsboro, NC – Many of the County dumps are still closed, primarily those in the south and west parts of the County.  Dumps are closed on Sunday. When I called Chatham County Waste on October 29, the person who answered was unable to provide a date when the operation would return to normal. The problem was described as hiring and training CDL Drivers.

photo by Robert V. Ruggiero

Did you know that the dumps are actually run by a contractor? Does this contractor also supply the drivers to move the trash from a dumpsite to the Chatham County collection point for trash transfer to the landfill? Is there a penalty in the contract for non-performance? Are the missing drivers being hired by the County or by the contractor?

We live in challenging times. It is easy to find multiple critical issues that face us in Chatham, in North Carolina, and in the Nation.

Transporting waste from a pick-up point to a collection center really should not be one of these critical issues. What can the County Manager or the County Board of Commissioners do to resolve this?