As the city moves forward with site selection for a solid waste transfer station, several council members said tonight they would like to explore working with the county on the matter.

Council agreed tonight to negotiate with MS Consultants to assist the city with site selection and design of the transfer station.

“You’re not taking a vote on building a transfer station,” City Manager Paul Sabiston said.

Sabiston said the city received requests for qualifications from three firms, with MS Consultants having the highest ratings of the three. If negotiations with the recommended firm fail, the city would go to its second choice.

Site selection would determine the proper location for the transfer station and determine if it is a project the city wants to do, Sabiston said.

Mayor Emery Doughtie asked whether voting on the request for qualifications would hamper the county joining the project.

Sabiston said it would not make that impossible. “If the county wants to do it you could recommend doing something together and leave that window open.”

Sabiston said if it becomes a joint effort, the proposed location of the transfer station could change. “We should have a better indication in the next 45 to 60 days with the county.”

Said the mayor: “I would like to keep the lines of communication open.”

“I think it’s important for us to keep that communication going with the county,” Councilman Greg Lawson said. “I encourage you to see if we can talk to them sooner than 60 days. We’ve talked about the potential at the old airport, what would be better suited for the site location.”

While council member Ernest Bobbitt said he was willing to talk with the county, he said, “I don’t believe we need any other entity involved in this project.”

Councilman Carl Ferebee also supports talking with the county.

Sabiston said the first two steps will be going through site selection and preliminary engineering, which will cost between $8,000 to $12,000.

Sabiston he talks with County Manager Tony Brown regularly. “There’s a little timing going on with what they’re going to do with their situation. We’re going to let them know we’re getting to a critical stage.”

Lawson said, “I don’t want to be in a position that we’re rushing this thing.”

Following the meeting, Public Works Director Richard Parnell said there are three or four sites the engineers will consider.

They include the old landfill site at Deepcreek Road, a site across from public works which housed the old dog pound and a piece of land next to Halifax Linen which has since been sold.The city has had private citizens offer it land.

Each of the sites have plusses and minuses, Parnell said in May, including the one the city is currently looking at, land at the public works building on Hinson Street, which residents in the Lincoln Heights and South Rosemary communities have objected to.

If the county should partner with the city, location will become more important, Parnell said tonight. “The transfer station needs to be in the range of five, seven or eight miles.”

As the city continues studying the matter, the Lincoln Heights Community Development Coalition also continues to study the matter. “We are continuing our efforts of monitoring the various steps by the city to build a garbage dump in the city,” Florine Bell, of the coalition, said in a prepared statement. “We are also keeping the public informed of the negative impacts of having this facility in close proximity to their respective neighborhoods.”

The latest revenue projections for the approximately $695,000 project show with a transfer station the city could see operating revenues over expenses of $282,814. Without a station that figure would be $180,742.

The projections are based on 28,000 tons per year with 7,200 coming from the city’s own solid waste and debris.

Financing options have also changed since the matter was first discussed, Sabiston has said, with debt service being calculated on financing $700,000 over 20 years at an estimated percentage rate of 3.05 percent.

Financing for 20 years instead of 10 years contained in earlier documents would mean an annual debt service of $47,268.66.

The transfer station concept is to build a facility at the city’s maintenance yard where residential and commercial solid waste may be delivered and then transferred by independent haulers to a landfill.

The city’s own collection trucks and third party commercial haulers which pick up solid waste or choose to bring it from other areas will be the primary users, an earlier memo says.

Preliminary studies by the state Department of Transportation show Hinson Street, where the proposed station would be located, would not have to be improved if 100,000 tons a year were transported on it.