After weeks of planning, the new solid waste dumpsite near Belt is now open and operational; however, there is still more work to be done.
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“The public works department finished their work last week on the temporary site. Republic Services hired a person to come in and manage the site, as in the past. It’s right next door to the old one, so our residents should not have any trouble finding it,” explained Cascade County commissioner Joe Briggs.
The engineers for the project are still working to finish and approve the design for the permanent fixtures.
“Instead of having the drive-over area where you park and then put your trash down into the high containers, until that section is built, the containers are lower and they’re designed so that you can either throw your garbage over the side of it or if you’re taking it in a pick up, you can jump in the back to pick up and just drop it over the side,” Briggs said.
Since the closure of the previous site, residents in the area have had to travel further to dump their trash. The commissioners said several people have reached out in anticipation of having this site up and running.
Briggs added, “It feels good to get one of these things at least partially off the list and back in operation.
According to the commissioners, they are looking into ways to reduce operational costs in the future, including potentially installing a compactor.
(MARCH 11, 2025) 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 landowners for the new site, James Warehime and Shirley Warehime, will be leasing the almost three-acre piece of land to Cascade County at the following annual rates:
- July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2030: $2,000/annually
- July 1, 2030 - June 30, 2035: $2,500/annually
- July 1, 2035 - June 30, 2040: $3,000/annually
- July 1, 2040 - June 30, 2045: $3,500/annually
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.
