In their meeting Tuesday morning, the Cascade County Commissioners voted to approve a new solid waste dumpsite near Belt.
The previous dumpsite lease agreement expired in June of 2024 after the landowner, Jim Bumgarner, and the county commissioners were not able to reach a new agreement.
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Bumgarner said, “Communication between the commissioners and myself, actually I didn't even get to talk to the commissioners, I was talking to the attorneys. That stopped at the end of December, and they cleared their stuff out of the property.”
According to the county commissioners, Bumgarner was not willing to give them a suitable long-term lease agreement.
Commissioner Joe Briggs explained, “We needed a long-term lease and what we passed today was a 20-year lease. That's what we need in order to be able to operate with stability and consistency for the public.”
The new site is directly adjacent to the old site along Tiger Butte Road:
The lease agreement for the new dumpsite will begin on March 11th, 2025, and end on March 10th of 2045.
“We have a longer-term lease with the town of Cascade, we have this new one out by Belt, and we’re going to be trying to get 20-year leases on all the rest of the properties we make use of for this purpose,” said commissioner Briggs.
The county will need to acquire a zoning permit before opening the new dumpsite, but in the meantime, commissioner Briggs said they will start getting the site ready to go.
Bumgarner said he would like for the commissioners to reconsider the use of the previous location which had been a public dumpsite since 2013.
“I just want the taxpayers’ money to be spent properly; and if that’s what’s being done, that’s all I ask for,” Bumgarner added.
Following the completed signing of the new lease Tuesday morning, the county commissioners are hopeful the new dumpsite will be open and operational as soon as possible. They don’t know yet when that will be.
(DECEMBER 17, 2024) The Belt/Armington dump site, located on Rimrock Valley Preserve’s land near Belt, was recently closed. The unexpected closure was due to the lease between the landowner and the Cascade County Commissioners not being renewed at this time.
“It was a typical Saturday morning, got to haul our trash down to the dump. We showed up, [the] gate was locked, no signs, no notices,” explained rural Cascade County resident Chad Schearer.
“I just got our tax bill for the year; it increased 45% and now we have to go all the way to Stockett, that's the closest receptacle for us out here. So, some of my concerns is the amount of trash that might blow out of vehicles and mess up our beautiful county just because our commissioners weren't able to get this done in a timely manner,” said Schearer.
The three-acre piece of land just off Highway 87 between Belt and Armington has been a public dumpsite to Cascade County residents since 2013.
Previous landowner, Cascade County Commissioner Jim Larson, sold the property in 2020 to Jim Bumgarner.
Bumgarner upheld and continued to lease the property at the same rate from 2020 to 2023.
Bumgarner, the current Rimrock Valley Preserve landowner, said he initiated negotiations for a new lease upon its expiration earlier this year, but was unable to get a timely response from the County Commissioners.
“The lease just gave access for the county to use these three acres for a transfer site, and then they subcontract with Republic to haul the garbage to the landfill,” said Bumgarner.
The lease agreement between Cascade County and Rimrock Valley Preserve expired in June of 2024. Before signing a new lease, Bumgarner wanted to raise the annual cost for the continued use of his land from $1,500 a year to $4,500 a year.
In a news release Monday evening, the Board of Cascade County Commissioners said they have “attempted to engage Rimrock Valley Preserve through multiple channels, including direct negotiations, to find a mutually beneficial agreement.”
Bumgarner said he did not receive a response from the county in a timely manner, causing the current lease to be terminated.
The Board of Cascade County Commissioners also said they are “exploring all available options to mitigate this community issue for the residents of Cascade County.”
“I said, if the county is not interested in following with the $4,500, you can take this as your 30-day notice, per the contract, to terminate after June 30th and return the land to its natural condition and vacate,” Bumgarner explained, in regard to no new lease being signed.
Until a new lease is negotiated and finalized between Bumgarner and the Cascade County Commissioners, the dumpsite will remain closed.
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