Waste Connections ups host payments for landfill at Bear Creek
Plus: Winter weather threatens the region tonight, annual Christmas parade is Saturday
Good Thursday evening! This is The Weekender, a final look at this week’s news from the Independent Herald. The Daybreaker (Monday) and The Weekender (Thursday evening) are our two news-first newsletters. We publish several other newsletters throughout the week, as well as our regular E-Edition on Thursday and our Varsity E-Edition on Sunday (during sports season). If you’d like to adjust your subscription to include (or exclude) any of these newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t subscribed, please consider doing so!
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Buckeye Home Medical Equipment. Serving Scott County and several other communities in the Upper Cumberland region, Buckeye is a full-line DME providing home health equipment to its patients.
Waste Connections to pay out more to Scott County, Oneida in landfill host fees
HUNTSVILLE | Weeks after striking a deal to increase the amount of money it pays to Scott County in “host fees” at Volunteer Regional Landfill, Waste Connections has reached a similar agreement with the Town of Oneida.
The Knoxville-based landfill operator has long owned the landfill at Bear Creek, which was annexed by the Town of Oneida after it opened in the late 1990s as Roberta Sanitary Landfill. Host fees are payments made by private landfill operators to the communities where the landfill is located, and are distinct from tipping fees, which are paid by waste haulers to the landfill to dump waste.
The existing host fee paid by Waste Connections was 85 cents per ton to each of the two government entities, Scott County and Oneida. That agreement had been in place since 2020. Earlier this year, Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers negotiated an increased host fee agreement with Waste Connections, which was approved by the Scott Solid Waste Board in October. The existing agreement was set to expire Dec. 31, 2025, and the county had a July 4 deadline to request a renegotiation of the agreement. Under terms of the new contract, which is a 10-year agreement, Waste Connections will increase its price per ton by five cents per year for each of the first three years, then two cents per year for each of the last seven years of the deal.
Jeffers said at Monday’s meeting of Scott County Commission that Waste Connections has entered into the same agreement with the Town of Oneida.
Under the new agreement, Waste Connections’ fee to both Scott County and Oneida will increase from 85 cents per ton to 90 cents per ton in 2026, then to 95 cents per ton in 2027. By 2035, the final year of the agreement, Waste Connections will pay the two local government entities $1.14 per ton — an increase of 34% over the 10-year period.
In October, Jeffers said that Scott County has been able to do “pretty spectacular things” with the host fee, adding that it enables the county to employ three people at the county-owned recycling center in Huntsville, employ a “litter person,” and operate the recycling center, which is open six days per week for residents to dispose trash free of charge — with the exception of tires, which carry a disposal fee.
Jeffers also said at that October meeting that Scott County traditionally budgets $230,000 each year in landfill host fee revenue. However, he said that last year’s payments from Waste Connections reached $329,000, an increase that he attributed partially to clean-up from the tornado that impacted the southeastern Kentucky towns of Somerset and London last summer.
Jeffers said the increased revenue was used to reclassify four employees, and also to give a 5.5% pay raise to county employees without increasing the property tax.
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Winter weather threatens the northern plateau
The National Weather Service in Morristown has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for Scott County and the rest of the northern Cumberland Plateau region, which will be in effect from 7 p.m. Thursday to 7 a.m. Friday.
The NWS says that up to an inch of snow and a glaze of ice are possible as a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain impacts the region overnight. There is an 80% chance of a wintry mix in the forecast tonight, dropping to a 10% chance Friday morning.
Temperatures are forecasted to bottom out just below freezing overnight, falling to about 30° in Oneida.
Considerable uncertainty surrounds the forecast, however, with temperatures expected to be marginal for both snow and ice, and precipitation amounts expected to be limited. In its advisory, the NWS urged local residents to plan for slippery road conditions, which it said could impact both the evening commute tonight and the morning commute tomorrow.
The advisory comes as several high school sporting events are planned locally. Oneida’s basketball teams will be on the road at Midway tonight, while Scott High’s basketball teams will be a little further down the road at Loudon. Scott High has a four-team wrestling meet scheduled at Highlander Gymnasium, with Union County, Clinton, and Corbin (Ky.) visiting.
Any deteriorated road conditions will be expected to improve relatively quickly on Friday, as temperatures are expected to get above 40°.
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Annual Christmas parade is Saturday
ONEIDA | The Scott County Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade, an annual tradition that dates back to just after World War II, will take place Saturday along the streets of Oneida.
The 77th annual Chamber of Commerce parade will step off at 2 p.m. from HBD/Thermoid on Industrial Lane in the downtown area, following its traditional route along Alberta Street (U.S. Highway 27) north to Claude Terry Drive, where it will disband in the parking lot of Oneida Elementary School.
Thousands of parade-goers are expected to turn out along the 1.7-mile route. Stacey Swann, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday afternoon that a large parade is expected, with 17 floats and hundreds of moving pieces. She said float entries and pageant winners are being advised to arrive at the HBD/Thermoid staging area early Saturday in order to facilitate a smooth lineup process. Float judging will begin at 12:30 p.m., she said.
The parade will be broadcast live by the Independent Herald.
The weather forecast for Saturday afternoon is for partly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 40s.
Hamby is named Principal of Year
Jeremy Hamby (back row, second from right) was named the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s Principal of the Year from District 2 for 2025, and was honored at a ceremony on Nov. 13. Other honorees included Dr. Jon Rysewyk as School System Administrator of the Year, Scott Cupp as Athletic Director of the Year, Abby Williams as Female Coach of the Year, Rick Howard as Male Coach of the Year, Rob McConkey III as Official of the Year, and Rick Russo as Contributor of the Year.
The Weekend
🌤️ Weather: We’ll see partly to mostly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low to mid 40s for much of the weekend, then a slight chance of rain on Sunday. There’s a 40% chance of snow Sunday night, with temperatures dropping into the upper 20s. Check out our daily Eye to the Sky updates on our Facebook page — published each morning at 7 a.m. on the dot.
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📅 Community Calendar
• Friday: Oneida basketball will host Campbell County, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on the IH Sports Network, with the Rogers Group Pregame Report beginning at 6 p.m.
• Saturday: The 77th annual Scott County Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade will begin at 2 p.m. in Oneida, traveling from HBD/Thermoid on Industrial Lane to Oneida Elementary School on Claude Terry Drive by way of Alberta Street (U.S. Highway 27). The parade will be broadcast live by the Independent Herald.
• Saturday: First Saturday night services will be held at Capital Hill Missionary Baptist Church (6:30 p.m.), East Robbins Missionary Baptist Church (6 p.m.), Norma Missionary Baptist Church (6 p.m.), and Black Creek Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church (7 p.m.). For more information, see our Church Directory at indherald.com.
• Sunday: Celebrate Recovery, a 12-step program designed to help with addiction, co-dependency and domestic abuse, will be hosted by Fire & Purpose Ministries from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 27192 Scott Highway in Winfield. There will be food, fellowship, praise and worship. Childcare is provided.
• Sunday: The Singing Hambys will be at West Oneida United Baptist Church Sunday evening. The service begins at 6:30 p.m., and everyone is invited to attend.
The Community Calendar is presented by Citizens Gas Utility District. CGUD’s pipelines reliably distribute natural gas to customers across the service area in Scott and Morgan counties. Visit citizensgastn.com.
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📢 Programming Note: Watch for our weekly E-Edition Friday morning! You can always find our E-Editions here. The E-Edition is published on Thursdays (and on Sundays during the high school sports season) and includes all digital content from the week in an easy-to-read, flip book format.
Scenic Sale!
This week’s sale items at Scenic Foods in Huntsville! The sale continues through Tuesday. Sponsored content.
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◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)