Jim Crabtree cleaned out a house he had bought and hauled three loads of garbage to the county’s waste site. Before he could dump a fourth, the scale house attendant told him to settle his account. He later got an invoice and was told to pay it or lose his dumping privileges.
He brought the bill to the Lee County Board of Supervisors on September 15 and said he would not pay it. The board voted 4 to 1 to write off invoice No. 7906, for $110.22, according to the minutes of that meeting. Supervisor Roger Waddell voted no.
The dispute is a small window into how the county handles trash. Over the past year, the board has also moved convenience centers, raised a fee and paid more to get rid of waste. The Lee Daily Register traced those decisions through the board’s minutes.
Household trash or business waste?
The bill turned on a definition. County Administrator Clint Carter told the board that his understanding from Public Works Superintendent Gary Collingsworth is that anything generated from a business is typically charged, and that Collingsworth considered trash from a rental property to come from a business. Crabtree said it was household garbage either way.
Supervisor Brian Shoemaker said household trash should have been free, and Supervisor D.D. Leonard said he did not see why Crabtree should pay to clean up someone else’s trash. The minutes describe the rule only as staff’s understanding, and they do not point to a written fee policy.
Two convenience centers on the move
The convenience centers, where residents drop off household trash, are changing in two communities.
Dryden. In August 2025, the board approved a special use permit for a county-owned refuse collection center on about 3.5 acres east of Big Hill Road at Veterans Memorial Highway. Then-County Administrator Robby Wright said the land was an expense now but would save the county money in the long run, according to the August 19, 2025 minutes. The new site was waiting on electricity that September, and in March 2026 the board added a $25-a-month light there.
Gibson Station. The center sits on a one-lane road. A first motion to move it, at $150 a month, died without a second in January 2026. In May, the board voted to relocate it for $100 a month in rent after the landowner agreed to match the current rent, according to the May 19 minutes. A special use permit for a 4-acre site followed in July, and in August Carter said he hoped to have a lease drafted within the week.
Residents elsewhere have asked for more. A request for a center in the Seminary area, made after the Dryden site moved, was raised in November 2025, and a Dryden resident asked twice in early 2026 about trash cans in the upper end of the county. The minutes through September 15 record no action on either.
Tires now cost $100 a ton
The fee for dropping off tires at the Lee County Transfer Station went from $60 to $100 a ton on July 1. The county sends tires to the Blackwood Landfill in Wise County, and Carter said Wise County was raising its own charge from $40 to $80 a ton. “In order to keep the same margin we will need to increase our charge,” he told the board, which adopted the new fee 5 to 0, according to the June 16 minutes.
Other trash costs are rising too. The county’s contract for landfill use at Blountville, Tennessee, renewed in 2025 with a 3.6% yearly increase. In December 2025, Wright estimated the county’s own cost to haul garbage from the convenience centers to the transfer station at about $25.30 a ton, a figure he said may be a little high. The board sought outside bids for that hauling, and one bid came in, according to the February 17 minutes. It went to closed session, and no public decision on it appears in the minutes.
What the budget shows
The county appropriated $2,195,333 for solid waste in 2026-27, up from $2,170,167, plus $50,000 each year for landfill monitoring. Before the last budget year closed, the board added $27,170.72 from reserves for waste transportation and disposal fees and $19,623 for landfill expenses.
Tipping fees are expected to bring in $230,000 this year, up from $195,000 in last year’s advertised budget. Residents who think a charge is wrong can do what Crabtree did and ask to speak to the board. It meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. in the Lee County Courthouse in Jonesville.
