Trash and recycling drop sites in Lenoir County are now closing two hours early as Solid Waste Department officials work to keep their part-time employees within the 1,000-hour limit imposed by the state.
County residents who pay a landfill fee can take their bagged household garbage and recyclable materials to any one of nine sites around the county, called recycling and roll-off sites, according to the Solid Waste Department’s website.
The sites have traditionally been open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday, but the department recently decided to close the sites at 5 p.m.
“I have been around to all nine sites … all of (the staffers) are saying they get more business in the mornings than the evenings,” said Solid Waste Director Tom Miller. “That’s why we decided to close (at 5 p.m.).”
Twenty-seven people work at the drop sites — three employees are assigned to each site, and each of those employees works two days a week. They are paid an hourly wage of $7.50, but do not receive benefits or county retirement. Many are retirees from elsewhere.
Miller, who spoke to the members of the Lenoir County Board of Commissioners about the situation this week, said the state requires counties to hold their part-time workers to 1,000 hours a year.
“To cut them down to 1,000 hours, it would put them at 19 hours a week,” he said of the part-timers at the drop sites.
County Human Resources Director Jack Jones said he wished they could be paid more.
“They’re always so nice to me when I’m out there. … It’s a good group of folks, they really are; we’re glad to have them,” Jones said.
He said any employee who works more than 1,000 hours a year is entitled to benefits and participation in the county retirement system, which requires contributions from the employee and employer.
Jones said the county is working to hold down costs wherever possible.
One of those part-time Solid Waste workers is Ed Herring of Sandy Bottom. He has worked at the drop site at the Lenoir County Fairgrounds for nine years. He spent 14-and-a-half years with the city of Kinston’s sanitation department, and was working at West Pharmaceuticals’ former Kinston plant when it exploded in late January of 2003.
Six of his coworkers were killed in the blast. Herring sustained minor injuries.
He said, outside the plant, the explosion could be heard for miles.
“When you're the one inside it sounds like you popped your fingers,” he said, clapping his hands sharply.
Herring, now 72, said he enjoys the two days he spends each week at the site, working with the residents who pull up, drop their trash, chat briefly and then head out.
“I treat them nice, they treat me nice and we get along fine,” he said.
Herring said he would lose income from the cutting back of hours, but there was little he could do about it.
“It depends on how much you procrastinate taking your trash off,” Deep Run resident Tyler Grady said of the shortened hours Wednesday as he and his best friend Justin Potter of Deep Run came to the site to drop bags of garbage before heading out to play disc golf.
“It is easier for things to be open later but you have to work around your schedule, I guess,” Grady continued.
Christopher Dziuk of Kinston said the early closing seemed like “an inconvenience” to him “because some people might get off work later and they might need that extra two hours.”
Henry Berry of Kinston said he didn’t have a problem with the early closing, because he did not think the workers should be at the sites after sundown.
“You have from 7 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon to get your trash off,” he said.
Herring talked with Berry about the income he would lose by having his hours cut, though.
“They're drawing Social Security, just like I am,” Berry said. “I know the money they’re losing by not working the 12 hours (a day) but they still ought to be all right.”
David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or David.Anderson@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.
BREAKOUT BOX:
LenoirCounty drop sites:
n Site No. 1 Dobbs Farm — 2118 Robinson Road, Kinston
n Site No. 2 Fairground — 475 Fairground Road, Kinston
n Site No. 3 Loftin’s Crossroads — 1957 Elijah Loftin Road, Kinston
n Site No. 4 Deep Run — 2559 Eric Sparrow Road, Deep Run
n Site No. 5 Little Baltimore — 3185 Willie Measley Road, La Grange
n Site No. 6 Wallace Road — 2272 Wallace Road, Kinston
n Site No. 7 Nobles Mill — 309 Nobles Mill Road, Pink Hill
n Site No. 8 Strabane — 190 Smith Grady Road, Seven Springs
n Site No. 9 Hugo Crossroads — 2773 Grifton-Hugo Road, Grifton
Source: Lenoir County Solid Waste Department (co.lenoir.nc.us/solidwaste.html)