Grant will fund improvements to Talkeetna, Willow transfer sites

More than two million dollars in federal grant funding will help the Borough develop a compost program and upgrade three transfer facilities. Mat-Su Borough Solid Waste Division Manager Jeff Smith says this funding is the second of two received from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grants for Communities. Total grant funding is $3.5 million dollars and there is no Borough match required.

“We’ve since then started ordering the equipment. So that was the first part of the $1.4 million. The second part, the $2.1 million, that was recently approved is to upgrade sites. So we are in the process now of working towards upgrading Talkeetna, a little bit of work in Willow, quite a bit of work in Big Lake, and, of course, the old compost area here at Central Landfill.”

Part of the funding will help build out a 3.5-acre site at the Landfill for processing the compost. 

“We collect the brush, bring it here, and then shred it, process it, put it into piles, and basically create the compost so we can ship it back out to the different sites.” 

The Willow Transfer Site will see some different collection containers to hold the yard waste instead of burning it. The Borough will then transfer that material to the main compost facility to be processed. The Talkeetna Transfer Site will see some bigger changes.

“The plan is to improve the recycling opportunities up there, the hazardous waste collection, as well as the brush collection. I don’t have the plan laid out yet. We still have to draft it. I needed this funding in order to make that happen, but we’ll move the scale house. Put in a different scale house. The traffic flow will enter on the  opposite side of where it is now so that you’ll go right by that recycling center, scale house, and so on, so everything will be a little bit easier to manage and control.”   

Smith says the site at the Central Landfill will be developed over the next year and that the Talkeetna site will likely see updates early next year.