CARBON HILL — Candidates for Walker County Commission Chairman spent the majority of their time during a recent forum at the Walter Myers American Legion Post 101 in Carbon Hill speaking on the county’s finances and solid waste department.
Incumbent Steve Miller as well as challengers Charles Bishop and Jordan Madison all gave their takes on how the county’s finances are currently fairing, how to better them in the future and how solid waste might play a role in that future.
“As your current chairman, I would continue exactly what we’re doing. I would continue to improve the finances of this county,” Miller said. “If you look, there was $1.3 million when we came into office sitting in the coffers in the general fund. These folks (opponents) tell you that there was $4.5 million. But look at all of the accounts we have today, there’s over $13 million there. The county is not going broke. As you’re being told, the county is moving forward. And we’re gonna continue this. If you’ll elect me again, we’re gonna continue to use my business experience to make money.”
Bishop said Miller’s numbers don’t add up.
“It’s not what he says. It’s what he don’t say that you don’t know,” Bishop said. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s one thing I promise you faithfully. I will not lie to you. I will not mislead you. I will tell the facts.
“Look, this race is getting down to who is telling the truth?” Bishop said later in the forum, calling for him and Miller to take a lie detector test. “I’m tired of this. I’ve never heard anything like it. There are illegal things happening in this election, but I’m going to let the attorney general take care of that.”
Madison said one of the biggest reasons he’s running is to create “real” transparency in the county government, saying the current administration has not been transparent.
“One of the things that I would like to do and accomplish is bridge the gap between the citizens and the everyday people to the administration and the commission office. It seems to be incredibly difficult to find county finances,” Madison said. “We have a lot of things that need to be restructured in our county. We have a state auditor that came in to do a check on some of the systems and procedures and said Walker County is operating on a dying system. It is not hard to see that by driving down the roads and looking at the state of affairs that Walker County is in.”
The future of the county’s solid waste department was talked about as much or more than finances during the forum. Much of the talk related to the closure of Pineview Landfill in 2025.
“It is a complex problem, and I would be for creating a committee over the solid waste department to try to figure out what’s gonna be the best solution for our citizens,” Madison said. “Obviously, we don’t wanna have to raise rates on people. We had an opportunity to outsource the garbage business to Republic several years ago. Chairman Miller was the deciding vote to keep the landfill open and raise rates.
“And now we just delayed the problem until now,” he continued. “We are one year away from a landfill closing, and then the public having to take on that burden. I don’t blame, specifically, this administration as a whole. We had 25 to 30 years to solve this problem, and we kept kicking the can down the road for the next administration to try to tackle the problem. I’m gonna do whatever is best for the citizens to keep the rates low and to make sure that we can operate efficiently.”
Bishop said he doesn’t think it would do any good to attempt to legally challenge the closing of Pineview. He instead suggested the county should be looking into building a new landfill.
“What I’ve got now, we’re working on a landfill,” Bishop said. “I’ve got engineers giving us a cost for it. It’s something that should have been done 20 years ago. I know how to get it. I know where to get the money. I spent a lot of time in Montgomery. I spent time in Washington representing you. Mr. Aderholt (U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt) and our state senator (Sen. Greg Reed) is is entered into an agreement for us to clean this mess up. In two years, I think we can own our own (landfill). We’re going to visit the counties around us and see how they are doing things. We can learn from others.”
Bishop said he met with the two lawmakers last month to discuss possible solutions to the landfill issue. It was suggested by Miller during the forum that a “private individual” could be wanting to build a landfill to make a profit off the situation, seemingly pointing a finger at Bishop. A question from the audience also asked if Bishop had ever had any interest in a waste management company. Bishop denied ever having interest in a waste management company and said he was not interested in personally being invested in any landfill, citing he was only looking into the issue from the perspective of being the possible future chairman of the county commission.
Miller spoke about keeping the solid waste department in tact by voting not to outsource the garbage service in recent years. He also said there are plans being discussed “if” the landfill closes.
“10 miles down the road is where the trash goes if this landfill closes, or to another facility about the same mileage away in a different direction,” Miller said. “And we’re working on all those things. There have been plans in place but when you start talking about ‘I’m going to do this’ or ‘I’m going to do that,’ you don’t know until you get to the point that you get negotiations made.”
Miller agreed the landfill issue has been building for years.
“The landfill was back in the 90s, and then it has came through all of the administrations, including Mr.(Jerry) Bishop as the chairman before me, and nothing was done about it,” he said. So this has laid there and it has been looked at. And if you notice most of our commission meetings, we have folks from East Walker there that wants to continue to close that landfill. This landfill represents all of us here in Walker County. Us as the citizens of the county, me included, every one of you are in a lawsuit for the county that everybody here is involved. We’ve been looking at other places, we’ve been talking to other folks, and your rates are not going to go up.”
