A final agreement between McKean County and the Solid Waste
Authority which will ultimately lead to the dissolution of the
agency is nearly complete.

On Tuesday, Commissioner Chairman John Egbert said the county’s
attorneys have rewritten the agreement and “sent it off” to the
Harrisburg law firm of Rhoads & Sinon, principally attorney Ken
Joel, for review.

“It has been sent off with our changes as of this morning
(Tuesday),” Egbert said.

The county is represented in the talks by Neal Devlin and
Jennifer Gornall-Rouch of the Erie law firm of Knox, McLaughlin,
Gornall and Sennett.

According to Egbert, a meeting between both sides has been
tentatively slated for sometime early next month with the parties
trying to agree on an exact date.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a complete, or near complete, agreement
at the end of that meeting,” Egbert said.

While officially there has been no time frame given to reach an
accord, the talks have been ongoing for several months. Now it
appears the final language is being hammered out.

“There’s been a couple of little stuff going on back and forth,”
Egbert said. “I think we are getting there.”

Some of the issues that have been debated include guaranteeing
authority board members indemnity from any future lawsuits,
something the commissioners have agreed to in principle. Meanwhile,
officials said such issues as how the funds from the landfill sale
will be handled have already been agreed upon, noting any final
pact will include the dissolution of the authority.

The most contentious issue between both sides has seemingly
revolved around the dissolution of the authority and what to do
with its assets when that is completed. Other issues have included
the county’s desire to see curbside pickup instituted across the
county and the right to enforce illegal dumps.

During a special commissioners meeting last November, the panel
passed a resolution dissolving the authority. That ruling was
countered by the authority passing out $1.3 million to local
municipalities in appreciation of the entities taking their trash
to the landfill despite an increase in the tipping fees a few years
ago.

The county was also in line to receive $2.5 million from the
authority, but did not take the funding in light of the
circumstances. The two sides eventually ended up in McKean County
Court, where President Judge John Cleland ruled for a special
injunction to freeze the authority’s assets.

Later, the commissioners and authority reached a truce, with the
county indicating it wouldn’t stand in the way of the authority’s
disbursement of the funds to the municipalities. The two sides have
been in talks since that point.

The latest the authority could be dissolved is January 2007.
When that is completed, any income to the county could be invested
to create a contingency account and reduce debt service, which
would enhance the county’s credit standing.