Mayor: City should get landfill loot

A one-time $4 million appropriation dubbed as a "milestone investment." Another $500,000 in annual property taxes. Two million more each year in tipping fees.

That's the financial windfall that Waste Management has promised Cherokee County Council if it amends its solid waste policy and approves Waste Management's plans to create a solid waste and construction debris landfill along with a modern recycling center on a 1,550-acre parcel near McKowns Mountain.

Gaffney Mayor Henry Jolly said it's only right that Waste Management's gigantic financial footprint include the City of Gaffney.

"We're the county seat of Cherokee County," he said. "If the county benefits by them, then the city ought to join in with the benefits."

Jolly said he learned the details of the project when Waste Management Manager of Community and Municipal Relations Bob Peeler spoke earlier this month at the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce annual retreat.

Jolly said if Waste Management allows the county to dump its garbage at its proposed landfill free of charge, then the city should receive the same incentive.

Jolly said the city is due some kind of financial compensation from Waste Management since the city will be forced to spend funds to maintain many of the roads that an estimated 200 trucks a day will travel en route to the landfill and recycling center.

"Some of the roads are in dire need of repair now and now they will have 200 trucks a day use them," the mayor said. "They will be in more ill repair."