County Commission Discusses Possible Changes to Solid Waste Disposal

The Wayne County Commission met last Tuesday evening, February 18, 2025, to cover an agenda containing a few items of great interest to the public.

The first item of interest on the agenda was an update from Dr. Martin Chaney, Maury Regional Medical Center CEO. Dr. Chaney gave an update on the status of Wayne Medical Center since Maury Regional entered into a new contract to manage the hospital last June.

Dr. Chaney began by restating the three commitments Maury Regional Health made to Wayne County when signing the new contract. The first thing to which Maury Regional committed was to enhance their primary care presence in Wayne County. Approximately six months ago, Maury moved their primary care office in Waynesboro into a new, state-of-the-art clinic in the Piggly Wiggly shopping center. Dr. Haresh Veeramacheneni and Nurse Practitioners Paula Cole and Kendra Prater have seen a sizeable uptick in the number of patients being seen since moving into the new facility, and Dr. Chaney said that over 99% of patients report having a positive experience at the new clinic.

Another commitment Maury Regional made to the county was to continue to provide a high-quality ambulance service for our citizens. Dr. Chaney discussed the fact that Wayne County EMS was losing a great deal of money before the county began subsidizing them as agreed in the contract. He said that the subsidy provided by the county has allowed the ambulance service to continue to provide the high level of care and dependability that our citizens have come to expect and rely on.

What has been the most major change at Wayne Medical Center since the new contract went into effect was the transition to a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) on December 1, 2024. The transition, said Dr. Chaney, was the result of Maury Regional’s commitment to turn Wayne Medical Center into a more sustainable model, meaning that the hospital can be more financially stable while still providing much-needed care to patients.

The changes to the hospital under the REH designation are fairly straightforward: only emergency department, lab, outpatient, and imaging services are provided now, as opposed to a full inpatient facility. There are still observation bed stays available, but in order to stay in compliance, the length of observation stays must average 24 hours or less.

The positive things mentioned by Dr. Chaney that have resulted from the transition include:

• Better emergency department services than ever before. A new contract was entered into on February 1 between Wayne Medical Center and Southland ER Group, a company that provides excellent emergency room physicians for the hospital.

• A 10.9% increase in imaging studies such as MRIs since the previous year, and a 27% increase in outpatient physical therapy services provided by Maury Regional.

Wayne Medical Center has unfortunately faced some challenges since the transition as well. What most consider the biggest disappointment is the loss of ten employee positions at Wayne Medical. With inpatient care no longer provided, ten positions were eliminated. However, Dr. Chaney said that all ten employees were offered positions at other Maury Regional facilities, with some accepting those positions and others accepting a severance package and/or other employment closer to home.

Another big challenge facing Wayne Medical Center is the condition of the aging facility itself. Dr. Chaney said that the chiller unit is not functioning properly and is too old to be repaired. Not only does the chiller provide air conditioning, it also helps to control humidity, which is very important in a hospital setting. A temporary replacement was set to be brought in until a more permanent solution is found.

Commissioner Tom Mathis asked Dr. Chaney about something he felt commission previously misunderstood – skilled nursing beds, or “swing beds.” If Wayne Medical Center had been allowed to keep providing skilled nursing bed services, the ten lost employee positions would most certainly have been kept, and the hospital could have remained more like what our county has grown used to. Dr. Chaney explained that it had been Maury Regional’s intent to keep skilled nursing beds as part of the deal after the transition, but further research showed that there would have had to have been about thirty patients in skilled nursing beds on any given day to make it viable to keep providing the service. Dr. Chaney did assure the commission that Maury is still looking into possibilities to utilize the space at the hospital for other services, such as a drug and alcohol rehab facility.

The other main item of public interest discussed at the meeting was the county’s plan for solid waste disposal. Commissioner Vickie Petty, Chairman of the Solid Waste Committee, said that Wayne County is one of the few counties in the state whose solid waste program is not self-sustaining, meaning it does not break even financially. Commissioner Alvin Creecy, a member of the Solid Waste Committee, introduced a few possibilities he has researched extensively to make solid waste disposal fees fair for everyone.

Commissioner Creecy first presented research he has done into the actual cost of solid waste disposal. He said that it costs $70 per ton to transport solid waste from our local facility to an offsite landfill. In addition to that cost, there are also employee wages and equipment maintenance to be figured in. The bottom line is that solid waste disposal adds up to an approximate cost of five cents per pound. Although some property tax revenue is directed to solid waste, Commissioner Creecy said that it’s just not enough to cover the full cost.

One option Commissioner Creecy discussed was for customers who take their own garbage to the solid waste facility to purchase a special tag to place on your 20-pound bag of garbage. Your garbage would be weighed at the facility, and you would essentially be paying by the pound for your family’s solid waste disposal.

Another option mentioned by Commissioner Creecy was the possibility of every solid waste customer paying a flat $100 fee per year to dispose of garbage at the solid waste facility in Waynesboro. Under this model, customers’ garbage would not have to be weighed.

Recycling was another item of interest brought up. Commissioner Creecy said that anyone willing to put recyclable materials in separate bags from their garbage would not be charged for their disposal.

A major point of interest in the solid waste discussion is that each municipality, Waynesboro, Collinwood, and Clifton, contracts with RaeKar for garbage pickup and disposal. Per city ordinances, all city residents are charged a mandatory garbage disposal fee every month that they may not opt out of. In other words, if you live in one of the three cities and choose to take your garbage to the dump yourself, you will not only pay to dispose of it at the facility yourself but you will still pay a monthly garbage fee as well. RaeKar has recently indicated that if the county agrees to proceed with new pay-as-you-throw charging for residents, they will have to consider going up on their fees for city residents as well due to increased costs they will incur when dumping customers’ garbage.

Following a lengthy discussion on the solid waste matter, the meeting was adjourned due to incoming inclement weather. Any decision on solid waste was tabled until future meetings, with more discussion to take place in future Solid Waste Committee and Budget Committee meetings as well. Watch The Wayne County News for upcoming County Commission and Committee Meeting dates and times.