County gets former trash site ready for late March auction
Anderson County expects to auction off the former site of the Glen Alpine solid waste convenience center on Sinking Springs Road probably by late March or April, looking for a buyer who might use the land for a retail development, County Mayor Terry Frank said Monday.
The convenience center was closed permanently in mid-December when the county opened a much larger replacement site off Norris Freeway/U.S. 441 just south of Andersonville Highway.
“The 2012 agreement between Anderson County and the city of Clinton governs what we will do with the property at the former Glen Alpine Convenience Center location,” Frank said in a follow-up email. “According to the agreement, ‘the County shall sell the site by a well- advertised public auction conducted by a reputable auction company or a sealed bid process conducted by the County’s purchasing department.’”
Frank said the search for an auctioneer is under way.
“Following a request for bids, we have an agreement/contract currently working its way through commission for approval for an auctioneer,” she said. “ … We are looking at a March or April timeframe for the auction, depending on final execution of the auctioneer agreement and their timeline for most advertising exposure for the site.”
Last week, a work crew of prisoners from the county jail cleared the attendant’s shack and other material from the old site and removed the chain-link fence around it, leaving just the bare concrete pad that once held the array of trash compactors.
“We are currently working on cleaning up the old site,” Frank said. “ … We already had hoped to have that work completed, but we keep experiencing rain delays.”
At the front of the nearly 100-by-100-foot lot, the county posted a sign with a map directing people to the new site, hoping to help ease the confusion some people are experiencing since the dump moved, said Geoff Trabalka, the county’s solid waste coordinator.
“We’re trying to get it ready for selling,” Trabalka said. “We took down the fence. We hope we won’t have to take up the concrete pad. The plan is to sell it as-is.
“There still is a bit of an issue with people finding the new site,” he added.
“But at least people have not been dropping their trash off at the old site like some did right after we closed it.”
Frank said the owners of the adjoining lot on Sinking Springs Road have been trying to sell it for a retail development “for some time now.”
She said the county site does have frontage on Charles G. Seivers Boulevard, and possibly could be accessed from there for a retail business.
As for the new site, “People are liking the access,” Trabalka said
“There’s so much more room out there to make the turns and drop off the garbage.”
The Tennessee Department of Transportation has widened and re-striped Norris Freeway at the entrance to the site to provide a dedicated left-turn lane for traffic entering the convenience center from the north.
She said her office also is working with the Norris Freeway Beautification Committee to come up with a design for a permanent sign for the new convenience center to show motorists where it is.
“We want a sign that fits in with the community, rather than having just some metal sign,” Frank said. There is a temporary sign to indicate the turnoff for the new center.
The new location is officially 3065 Norris Freeway, which is just south of Andersonville Highway, and on the east side of Norris Freeway.
The $670,000 project, which includes $375,000 for the 17-acre site, operates at the same hours as the previous site -- 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, Trabalka said.
Just as with the previous center, the new location accepts household garbage; some recycling, such as paper, cardboard and some plastic (but no Styrofoam or garbage bags), as well as aluminum cans and steel food cans, Trabalka said. It will not take glass for recycling, but glass can be dumped with household trash.
“We also have an open-top container for bulk items, such as couches, mattresses and so forth,” he said.
Still not allowed to be dropped there are tires, paint, auto batteries, or anything with freon – such as refrigerators, air-conditioning units and dehumidifiers, he said.
There will always be an attendant on site when the center is open, provided by contractor Waste Connections of Knoxville, Trabalka said.