Landfill scale upgrade improves safety, reliability

R U S S E L LV I L L E — Franklin County has completed a major equipment upgrade at the county landfill, replacing a scale that had been in use for more than three decades with a new, modernized version funded through federal relief dollars.

Solid Waste Manager Gene Ward said the old scale had deteriorated after decades of daily use.

“It had been driven across so much that the deck had holes in it, and the foundation underneath was cracking,” Ward said. “The old scale was almost 34 years old — well past its time.”

The new model is longer, wider and includes side rails to improve safety for drivers maneuvering large vehicles onto the platform.

“It’s safer, sturdier and just a lot more practical for the kind of traffic we see every day,” Ward said. “They told me most landfill scales only last about 20 years. We’re hoping this one will go even longer.”

The $100,000 project was funded through the county’s Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Funds (LATCF), a federal allocation used for infrastructure priorities.

County Administrator Leah Mansell said the county had been monitoring the condition of the old scale.

The LATCF funds made it possible to act before the scale failed completely.

“Every time someone came to work on it, they reminded us how lucky we were that it still worked,” she said. “We’d been told we were on borrowed time.”