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Twin Oaks Golf Course to serve as new county landfill

Bethany Fuller | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Dec. 19, 2007

Preparing for future growth was the underlying theme of the Iredell County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday.

Commissioners voted on a resolution to borrow money for schools, purchased land for the ever-growing landfill and talked to the Mooresville town manager about sewer capacity.

As a result of the planning, golfers in the eastern portion of the county will eventually have one less course to play.

Commissioners agreed to purchase the Twin Oaks Golf Course for $4.75 million for 189 acres, which will eventually be used as a landfill.

County Commissioner Steve Johnson said the county plans to rent out the golf course for a few years until the county needs to expand the landfill.

“Eventually, we will use it to throw trash in a hole,” he said.

Johnson said the time frame for the project was up to 30 years, but he suspects with the way the landfill is growing, it is actually 10 to 15 years.

The landfill on Twin Oaks Road takes in about 900 tons of trash each day, Solid Waste Department Director David Lambert previously told the R&L.

The real estate sale was the second one commissioners conducted on behalf of the Solid Waste Department.

The county will also spend about $2.8 million to purchase 28.42 acres from J.C. Steele and Sons.

County Manager Joel Mashburn said the land is already surrounded by the landfill on three sides. By purchasing the property, the county will be able to put trash in the 300 feet it previously used as a buffer zone.

COPs

Only one person spoke out on the $106 million Certificates of Participation resolution hearing.

Buddy Hemric, who is a regular attendee to the commissioner meetings, said it would be the biggest bond purchase the county has made without a referendum from the voters, and he thought the voters should have a say in the matter before the county accrued the extra debt.

“I didn’t hear any schools north of Statesville that this money will be spent on,” he said, implying that the northern end of the county was losing out.

The money will go toward relieving the overcrowded conditions in existing schools and making provisions for growth in student populations.

Iredell-Statesville schools, which operate most of the schools in the county, will receive more than $80 million from the sale, and Mooresville Graded School District will receive $26 million.

The COPs are scheduled to be sold in late February for $106 to $107 million, however the resolution includes a provision that the county is “not to exceed the amount of $115 million” for unexpected changes in the bond market.

Mooresville Town Manager Jamie Justice told commissioners at their briefing meeting that the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources would be taking care of the sewer situation for the new elementary school on Coddle Creek Road.

Justice assured commissioners that the economic development projects the town and the county have worked on would not be affected by the new sewer permits suspension, which went into effect in November.

Iredell County Commissioners will not meet again until Jan. 15.

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