Last Tuesday local officials, community members, commissioners and staff met at the location of the new waste transfer station for Sanders County to commemorate its opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The new facility promises to be far more efficient than the last, according to Bob Church, an engineer from Greg West engineering who was one of the key participants in the project’s construction.

“This will really improve the efficiency of waste handling in the county,” Church said.

The project has been in the works since 2014 and finally finished construction in early December.

The project had a cost of nearly $5 million. This funding was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Program. This project is one of several that the USDA is working on with the county.

In charge of organizing and requesting the funding was USDA representative Lyle Coney, who was also present at the ceremony. Coney said “this was probably the most well organized project I have ever worked on” as he discussed his time working with members of Sanders County, the engineering and construction crews along with the county commissioners. This sentiment was shared by all of the project participants present at the ceremony. The facility is located just outside of Thompson Falls, on the east end toward Plains, between Thompson Falls and the Thompson River. The new facility also employs a company to transport the garbage directly to Missoula, as opposed to before where the county had to employ their own transportation which hindered efficiency and added to the cost of running the old project.

Also present at the ceremony were commissioners Carol Brooker, Glen Magera and Tony Cox. The owner of St. Clair Construction, Ollie St. Clair, along with building superintendent Mike Galloway and Jason Peterson, the facility director, were also present.