Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the new GOP nominee for mayor of Rutherford County, Tennessee, Joe Carr, in-studio to explain the one-sided deal between Middle Point Landfill and Republic Services with Rutherford County and what he would do to change it if elected.
Leahy: In-studio, our very good friend Joe Carr, who is the GOP nominee for mayor of Rutherford County. Now, Joe, what are the big issues? What’s the big issue in Rutherford County?
Carr: Well, you know something? During the primary, we ran on three very large issues that everybody was talking about and concerned about. One was unrestrained growth.
You’ve already got the growth issue, which is traffic, schools, congestion, crime, those kinds of things, as the county moves from rural to more urban.
The second was obviously the Middle Point Landfill and the fact that the Middle Point Landfill is the largest class one landfill in Tennessee.
Leahy: Let us just stop for a moment.
Carr: Sure.
Leahy: And take a few minutes to tell our listening audience about the Middle Point Landfill. Where is it? How long has it been there? What is the problem with the Middle Point Landfill from the point of view of Rutherford County residents?
Carr: You’re going to interrupt me here because this is a little long. But their landfill was established in 1987. In 1995, Democrat Mayor Nancy Allen and the county commission determined they were going to allow Republic Services, at the time, BFI, Browning-Ferris Industries, to bring outside trash into Rutherford County in order to maintain or allow BFI to make a profit as they wanted.
They said under the current model, prior to 1995, they couldn’t maintain the landfill profitably. So they entered into this … what’s called a host benefit agreement.
The host benefit agreement says that BFI, now Republic Services, can bring as much trash as they want, whenever they want, from wherever they want, for as long as they want. And Rutherford County has no oversight. None.
Leahy: Now, let me just interrupt.
Carr: That’s in the host agreement.
Leahy: This sounds like a very bad deal.
Carr: So you know that I’ve founded and was the CEO of two multi-million dollar engineering companies. I have crafted and negotiated many large contracts, well over millions of dollars. In all my years in business, my brief time as TDEC assistant commissioner, as the chief operating officer for a very large materials construction firm, I have never, ever, seen such a one-sided agreement in all my life.
And let me give you one example. Never mind the fact that we have no authority or control over what’s brought in and where it comes from, but in the agreement, Rutherford County receives $1.20 per ton of trash that comes from outside the county.
Currently, 70 percent of the trash that comes into that landfill is outside Rutherford County, anywhere between 4,000 to 5,000 tons a day.
The agreement says we get a $1.20 a ton. Well, Michael, if you and I were to negotiate an agreement like that, you or I, representing the county, would go, okay, that’s fine. But that $1.20 is going to be having an index for inflation attached to it.
Because if this agreement has no timeline to it, no expiration date, and basically, it ends when it’s full, then the $1.20 in 1995 is not the same $1.20 as it is in 2022. So we’re still receiving the same $1.20 without any index to inflation. That’s how bad this contract is.
Leahy: And this year under the Biden maladministration, the inflation rate is at a minimum of about eight and a half percent annually, but probably greater than that. By the way, where is the Middle Point Landfill, physically?
Carr: The Middle Point Landfill sits at the intersection of Highway 231, which is Lebanon Highway, just north of Murfreesboro in the Walter Hill community. It’s about 800 acres. 200 of it is actually used for landfill purposes with other parts of that land being for support services.
Leahy: What has been your proposed solution to that particular problem?
Carr: Well, two things. Number one, renegotiate the contract. That is first and foremost. I’ve always believed that the landfill had the opportunity to become a Rutherford County-only facility. That would reduce the trash intake from 4,500 to 5,000 tons a day down to anywhere from 1,000 to 1,200 tons a day.
Leahy: And if I can ask you this, if we go back to 1995, what was the population of Rutherford County in 1995 versus today?
Carr: Half of what it is now, 150,000. Less than half. But as the county has grown, the landfill has actually grown faster – much, much faster. And so what we see now is, again, 70 percent of trash comes from outside of Rutherford County.
We’ve got no authority or say, so what we need to do is we need to renegotiate the contract. If we renegotiate the contract, then it gives us more control over our waste stream that we develop in Rutherford County so we can have recycling and composting.
Leahy: So looking at that, Joe, what’s the likelihood that as the new mayor, if you were to win in the August 4th election, what is the likelihood that the current company – BFI owns it?
Carr: Republic Services.
Leahy: Republic Services. What’s the likelihood that they would renegotiate with you?
Carr: Funny you asked that, because three weeks ago the president of Republic Services out of the Atlanta office contacted me with the express purpose of sitting down and having a meeting and discussing that.
Leahy: Well, that’s a good sign isn’t it?
Carr: It’s an excellent sign. We met for two hours.
Leahy: Oh, you did?
Carr: Absolutely.
Leahy: What was that like? What was that conversation like? Where did you meet, by the way?
Carr: We met in the Murfreesboro attorney’s office.
Leahy: The City of Murfreesboro?
Carr: Yes, sir.
Leahy: That attorney?
Carr: They have local legal representation in Murfreesboro, obviously for a number of reasons. So their local attorney contacted me and said would you be willing to meet with the president of this division out of Atlanta?
Leahy: Of course, you’re going to say yes.
Carr: Absolutely. Because look, they’re part of this community. I don’t appreciate some of the things that they’ve done, but why would I not sit down – now to be sure, I don’t have any authority going associated contract. And I didn’t represent myself in that way. As a matter of fact, we made that very clear.
Listen to the interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
