The county has been working to close the landfill for several years, and the extended deadline of October 31 will not be met.

According to Pickett County Executive Carey Garrett, he met with representatives of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), along with Engineer John Drewnowski with Triad Engineering to discuss a new plan for Pickett County.

The bid that was received to close the landfill came in at $1.2 million. The county was also working to close the landfill with a grant of $369,000. Executive Garner reported to the county commission that the county was going to be allowed to pull (terminate) from the grant and reapply in 2020.

If the grant contract has defaulted, the county would not be allowed to apply for any type of grant for up to two years.

Garrett reported that the county will be providing written notice of the county’s intent to terminate the current bid contract so that they can reapply in 2020.

There will also be a maintenance effort agreement between TDEC and the county to avoid daily fines of being in non-compliance or not having the landfill closed. Fines were estimated to possibly have been up to $10,000 a day.

This was good news for Pickett County as it is now able to extend the time frame to complete the project and won’t have to borrow such a large amount of money at this time.