The Lycoming County Commissioners voted to accept an offer from the General Services Administration to acquire 1,067 acres of land adjacent to the landfill for $6.5 million, ensuring that the facility will continue operations, serving generations to come. This will bring longevity and life to the landfill for decades — for an immeasurable amount of decades,” said Jason Yorks, director of Resource Management Services.
Speaking of the site involved in the sale, Yorks said, “Technically this is what people always refer to as the camp area. This is the old camp that the Federal Bureau of Prisons had. It’s the land that’s south of the recycling center. So this will give us years and years and years of capacity and disposal. So much, honestly, it will not be in my career. The next director or the director after him would be the one to be permitting some of those cells that far along.”
Commissioner Scott Metzger agreed. “This is something that’s going to be for generations to come — the expansion of our landfill,” Metzger said. The project to buy the property has been in the works for at least 20 years, Yorks said. One reason for the length of time it has taken to complete the deal was that many of the people involved at the Bureau of Prisons would retire and their successors would have to be brought up to date on what the county wanted to do. Or new commissioners would be elected and they would have to be educated about what was planned. “You’re just trying to get everybody up to speed on what the possibilities exist with this property and why it’s so important,” Yorks said.