A Wichita Falls Landmark may go away one day, consigned to the trash heap of progress.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the city’s chief financial officer, Stephen Calvert, discussed the possibility of building a sanitation operations center in the future.
He said it would include a maintenance facility, a citizen convenience center — and a new transfer station to replace the one on Lawrence Road.
“There is a half-million dollars or some portion of funding we’re looking to put in next year’s budget to evaluate a site and move forward with that,” Calvert said.
“In the long term we’re looking at leaving the Lawrence Road area. That’s what we’re looking at doing,” City Manager Jeffrey Jenkins said of the transfer station location. “It doesn’t fit the area anymore in the commercial and retail corridor.”
Neither Calvert nor Jenkins mentioned a timetable or location for creation of the new facility.
The transfer station is where residential garbage trucks dump their loads into bigger trucks for transfer to the city’s landfill on Wiley Road. It’s also used by residents to get rid of trash that’s too large for curbside or alley receptacles.
The creation of the existing transfer station did not come about without a lot of trash talking.
The Lawrence Road site was picked by the City Council in 1981 and caused an immediate uproar among some residents, according to Times Record News articles at the time.
An Aug. 18, 1981, article said a group called the Committee for Clean Environment filed a lawsuit to stop the construction. Among the plaintiffs were Ben E. Keith Co., Falls Distributing Co. and White Stores, Inc.
The plaintiffs complained the $3 million station would adversely affect public health and create a public nuisance. The group filed a 1,500-signature initiative petition asking the city to choose a different location.
On Jan. 15, 1982, residents voted between the Lawrence Road location and a site on Seymour Highway. Lawrence Road won.
At the time, Lawrence Road was sparsely populated by businesses, but in the years that followed it became home to major retailers like Walmart, Sam’s Club, Lowe’s, Home Depot, the Quail Creek Crossing shopping center, restaurants and food stores.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Wichita Falls eyes moving trash transfer station in future
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News | USA TODAY Network
