The largest illegal dump site being addressed in Clinton County, the Blue Ridge dump, will soon once again be cleaned up after Clinton County Fiscal Court accepted a contract bid to have the site cleared.

The fiscal court, meeting in special session last Tuesday evening, March 22 opened bids on the clean-up project and only two were received, one from Patton Construction in the amount of $400,000 and the second from B & S Transfer out of London, Kentucky in the amount of $173,900.

With little discussion, the court voted, on a motion by Magistrate Ricky Craig, to accept the low bid, which passed on a 5-0 vote. Magistrate Patty Guinn was not present for the meeting.

The bid came in well below the allotted, estimated amount of the project, which is being funded with a state Environmental Protection Agency grant. The estimated cost of the Blue Ridge clean-up had been set at a little over $196,000.

The work on cleanup is expected to begin right away and the projected cleanup date is the by the end of this calendar year.

The court, at its regular meeting on March 17, approved a budget amendment including the illegal dump grant which totaled $240,884.53.

The remaining funds are being used to clean up smaller dumps, with the total estimated cost of all clean up being $252,049. However, the county is using some of its own resources, employees and jail inmates on cleaning up smaller dump sites.

Other than the major site at Blue Ridge, four other area sites will be cleaned up this year with the grant funds, including Bell Camp, at a cost of $10,422 with cleanup on that site literally complete; Conner Ridge, at a cost of $3,942 with a projected cleanup date of May 30; Koger Mountain, with a projected cost of $38,738 with an expected cleanup date of August 31; and 76 Falls Road dump, with an estimated cost of $2,717 and a projected cleanup date of June 30.