Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to show that the landfill is open until 5:45 p.m. every day.
Starting Oct. 1, Central Peninsula Landfill will be closed on Sundays.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough’s central landfill is currently open from 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. every day.
To trim expenses, the borough administration suggested closing the landfill one day per week in the proposed fiscal year 2017 budget, without identifying which day that might be.
After a tug-of-war over the closure in the assembly during the budget process, the assembly approved a plan to leave the landfill open on its seven-day per week schedule from May through September, switching to a six-day per week schedule for the less busy winter months.
The closure looks to save the borough approximately $150,000, according to the final adopted budget.
Borough Mayor Mike Navarre said the Sunday closure would likely have less impact on businesses and would line up with the schedule at the transfer sites in Homer and Seward, which are already closed for half the day Sundays.
By volume, the Central Peninsula Landfill already sees less waste on Sundays than other days of the week, though there are often more visitors because it is primarily individuals dropping off garbage rather than commercial operators.
The borough administrators will watch to see how the closure goes over, Navarre said.
“If we have a lot of problems then we’ll reconsider it,” he said.
Reach Elizabeth Earl at elizabeth.earl@peninsulaclarion.com.
