By John Dowd 

Services prepare for bridge closure

 


With the Trout Creek bridge closure on the horizon, a big question that has arisen is the query of what to do with the garbage. Since large trucks cannot travel on the Blue Slide Road due to its weight limits, what will have to happen to the trash of those living to the east and west of the bridge? The refuse site for those in Trout Creek is located to the west of the bridge, however most of the trash for the town is generated to the east, where most of the town is located.

The Trout Creek Bridge officially closes on June 1 and the county has worked with Jason Peterson, the solid waste supervisor, on a clever solution to the problem of the trash. The board and commissioners have created a temporary memorandum of understanding with the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) to work with Lincoln County to share garbage disposal. For the time of the closure the refuse from the west side of Trout Creek, Noxon and Heron will be transported to a site in Libby. For those living to the west of the bridge, the ordinary disposal site will remain the place for them to take their garbage; 61 Vinson Mill Roar. However, for those east of the closure there is another place opened by the county.

Garbage created by locals east of the bridge should be taken to an MDT gravel pit two miles east of Trout Creek and just west of the overpass. There will be a garbage trailer and operator there, as well as signage displaying the hours and rules. This temporary location will only accept household garbage and nothing non-typical or metal. Those things the county asks locals to either take to the Thompson Falls transfer site or to hold onto them until the reopening of the bridge.

Hours for both Trout Creek sites will be Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

Regarding postal services, residents living up the Blue Slide Road will be given postal boxes outside the Thompson Falls Post Office to receive mail, in order to limit the travel of deliveries up and down the Blue Slide Road and for safety purposes. There are now eight new sets of boxes, called CBUs (collection box units), temporarily installed in the Thompson Falls parking lot. These will be removed after the six-week full bridge closure is over. These boxes are labeled, and residents can start picking up their keys on Friday, said Thompson Falls Postmaster Sam Sacchi.

The new CBUs will be accessible 24 hours a day and will receive mail the ordinary six days a week. Another set of CBUs for affected Trout Creek residents have been placed at the corner of Vinson Mill Road and the Blue Slide Road.

 

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