The Central Peninsula Landfill will remain open on Sundays this winter following the addition of a new laborer position to the landfill’s operations during the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly’s Tuesday night meeting.
The landfill, like other borough solid waste sites, usually closes on Sundays between Oct. 1 and April 1. Per the Kenai Peninsula Borough, the facilities stopped being open seven days per week in 2016, when the borough scaled back operations as a cost-savings measure.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Solid Waste Director Lee Frey wrote in an Oct. 12 memo to assembly members that the department adjusted the landfill operations this year. The site has been open on Sundays this month in response to “frequent requests” from members of the public, who say they’re often only able to use landfill services on weekends, Frey wrote.
“We have not shut down the landfill this October as we normally have the past several years,” Frey told assembly members during a Tuesday finance committee meeting.
Additionally, the landfill currently only has one full-time laborer position covering 40 of the 70 weekly hours needed for the landfill to be open seven days per week. The new position will cover the remaining 30 hours, and then also put in 10 hours to assist other crews and help reduce overtime.
The new position is expected to cost the borough about $122,000 with overtime and benefits. The landfill’s operating budget for the current fiscal year is enough to cover the new employee’s wages and will be built into the budget for next fiscal year.
The Central Peninsula Landfill, located at Milepost 98.5 of the Sterling Highway, is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Transfer facilities in Homer, Seward, Kenai, Nikiski and Sterling, as well as the transfer site in Kasilof remain closed on Sundays.
A full schedule of disposal locations and hours of operation can be found on the borough’s website at kpb.us/swd-waste.
Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.
