‘I love it!’: Customers pleased by new Deschutes County solid waste facility at Redmond’s Negus Transfer Station

(Update: adding video, comment from Department of Solid Waste, customer)

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Deschutes County commissioners hosted a ribbon-cutting event Friday to celebrate the completion of a new solid waste facility at the Negus Transfer Station, at 2400 NE Maple Avenue in Redmond, which opened to the public Monday morning.

After three years of design and 18 months of construction, customers welcomed the large new indoor facility for unloading their trash.  

"I love it! It's going to be great, especially in the winter," said customer Roger Grossman.

Grossmann comes to the transfer station once a week, and thinks the facility will be safer.

"Elderly people that, you know, especially in winter, have a hard time standing outside doing this," Grossman said.

County Solid Waste Director Tim Brownell said, "We don't have ice on the surface, we don't have water, we don't have that combination of water and oil, if somebody spills oil on the ground. So yeah, the footing, the stability for for people unloading materials is is much easier, much safer."

Brownell says the renovation includes a 35,000-square-foot transfer facility. Previously, customers had to throw trash over a fence; now, they just unload it onto the ground.

"A bulldozer pushes materials from the floor into the top of a semi-trailer," he said. "Then we have another piece of equipment that that spreads it around, compacts it out."

The facility can see up to 500 customers a day. On average, there's about 400.

Brownell said the facility is addressing regional growth.

"Just the growth in that area, we've seen that increase year over year of new customers using that facility, or people use it more often," he said.

Scales were also added so customers can be charged by weight, instead of volume. Brownell says because of this, people will be able to dispose of more waste.

"Really, about a pickup truck worth of materials," he said. "Now we can have them bring more material -- ten cubic yards, or up to, and that's a self-haul trailer."

Grossman said, "It looks like it's going to be, I think, very functional."

The project cost a total of $20 million, funded by county bonds. For every pound of waste brought to the facility, a service fee will be charged, and that goes to paying off the building.

They charge $14 for the first 400 pounds, and $7 for each additional 200 pounds.

Officials say about 10 semi-truck loads are hauled from Redmond to Bend's Knott Landfill each day. The new facility will allow the county to move trash to Knott more efficiently.

Customers will continue to deposit recycled and organic material outside in designated locations, but they will dispose of their trash inside the new building.

Trash disposal fees at the upgraded Negus Transfer Station will change from volume-based to weight-based, which will allow County Solid Waste to track the amount of waste coming in more accurately.

The transfer station’s hours of operation are Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information about Negus and other transfer stations, including a list of accepted items, disposal fees and the hours of operation, visit the Deschutes County Solid Waste website.