Plains refuse gets new look

It might smell the same, but it now has a better look and is dust and mud free.

The Plains Refuse District - the "town dump" - received a major facelift in October with a new shack delivered to the site on Saturday.

Von Construction of Plains did the bulk of the project over the course of about three weeks, finishing the paving portion two weeks ago. Doran VonHeeder, owner of the construction company, said the project was done in three phases, starting with placing several truckloads of gravel at the lower part of the refuse site in an effort to fix the drainage problem there, said Commissioner Dan Rowan, who headed the project.

"The county had been considering paving for quite some time. I think the main reason was the mud during the winter. The mud was terrible. That was the worst part of it," said Rowan, who added that a lot of people from the Plains and Paradise area use the refuse site on a regular basis. "In the winter, if you drove in with a clean truck, when you left it wasn't clean," the commissioner said. "I thought there were so many people in the Plains and Paradise area using this and they shouldn't have to walk through mud to use the dump," he said.

Rowan said that trucks retrieving the full loads of refuse had trouble with the heavy mud on the lower level and that had to be rectified before any work at the upper site could be done. VonHeeder's crew had to remove some trees and shrubs and level the areas for the roll-off containers. With winter approaching, the commissioner wasn't sure the project could be done before the end of the year. He thought they might get portions done, but wait till spring to finish. "We were glad the weather held out and we were able to do it," said Rowan.

The old steel gates were removed from in front of the dumpsters, concrete pads were constructed in front of each one, and the main lot was prepared with around 600 tons of gravel, supplied by Sanders County workers. Rowan said they periodically used county road crew workers to help in an effort to save money. On one day, when they were short of truck drivers, Commissioner Johnny Holland jumped behind the wheel to help for about four hours, said VonHeeder.

"It makes it a lot more pleasant to come here," said Tony Hochstetler, after dropping off a load on Saturday, shortly after Mark Yoder of Black Rock Hauling of Trout Creek delivered the new structure for solid waste attendant Tim Johnson. It took Yoder less than 15 minutes to offload the 2,000-pound structure from the trailer and make sure it was level.

The 10x12 shed will serve as the office for Johnson, who's been working at the refuse site for the last two years. Old Hickory Sheds of Thompson Falls built the shed, which cost the county $5,244. The cost of the overall project was more than $200,000, said Rowan, who said he's been wanting to upgrade the refuse site since becoming a commissioner.

"It's going to make a big difference to me," said Johnson. As was his old shack, the new office will have heat and electricity, but he'll be able to lock this one. "I couldn't leave anything in the old one because people could just come in and steal it," said Johnson. The new structure has a small deck on the front and has three windows. Johnson has already decided where he'll put his desk and chair and plans to install a portable air conditioner.

The seven Von Construction crew members spent two days applying the estimated 750 tons of the two two-inch layers of asphalt. Sanders County road foreman Willy Ovitt and his crew helped to rake out the asphalt and directed the work trucks, said VonHeeder. This has been Rowan's biggest project since becoming commissioner in 2023 and the Plains dump is in his road district. He said Holland and Commissioner Tony Cox both agreed the Plains Refuse District needed to be refurbished.

The entire refuse site was reconfigured to where nearly all nine dumpster containers were on one side. An asphalt road also goes about halfway around the lower section. "The dust alone was really bad," said Johnson. "It's a big difference now."

It wasn't just mud that made the Plains Refuse District in need of improvement. Rowan said people complained about the dust, and the steel gates in front of the dumpsters prevented people from easily putting trash into them. The gates were positioned about a foot in front of the bins and made people lean over them or toss trash into the dumpster. He also said that people kept hitting them.

Rowan said they put concrete slabs in front of the dumpster bins because asphalt wouldn't have held up when the backhoe compacts the trash in the dumpster. "We didn't want to damage the new asphalt and we knew the concrete was stronger," said Rowan. It has recycle bins for cardboard, metal and aluminum, and they added one more bin. There are refuse sites in Heron, Noxon, Trout Creek, Thompson Falls, Hot Springs, and Dixon. The Trout Creek site was also improved this fall.

"It looks great. It was a great project, a big improvement and I'm very proud of it," said Rowan, a Plains resident, who is up for reelection for a six-year term in November. "People seem to be very satisfied and we're very excited about the improvements."