CASCADE COUNTY — Cascade County commissioners are reconsidering the long-term future of trash disposal in Belt, voting this week to move forward with an appraisal of the former Belt-Armington solid waste site.
Madison Collier reports - watch the video here:
The appraisal is a required legal step before the county can consider purchasing the property. While the vote does not commit the county to buying the land, commissioners say it will help determine whether ownership could be a more practical and cost-effective option than continuing to rely on a leased site.
For years, residents in the Belt-Armington area used a county dumpsite located on land leased by the county. In 2024, negotiations with the landowner fell through, and Cascade County lost access to the property.
In March of 2025, the county signed a 20-year lease for land located next to the original site. That move restored solid waste services for rural residents with minimal disruption.
While the leased site remains operational, commissioners say it lacks some of the infrastructure needed for long-term use. Containers at the current location sit at ground level, requiring additional handling, compared to the former site, which was already built for drive-up disposal.
“The old site has all the infrastructure there still for a complete solid waste site,” said Commission Chairman Jim Larson. “The site we are leasing doesn’t have all that for ease of delivery.”
On January 13, commissioners voted to authorize an appraisal of the original property, a step required by state law before the county can make an offer to purchase the land.
County leaders say they are now weighing two options: investing in new infrastructure at the leased site or buying land that already has much of the necessary infrastructure in place.
“It really comes down to finances,” Larson said. “Can we build a new site on land that we don’t own, or is it cheaper to buy the land that already has the infrastructure on it?”
Larson added that owning the property could provide greater long-term stability for the county, reducing the risk of future lease issues and allowing officials to make permanent improvements without uncertainty. Purchasing an already developed site could also allow the county to resume full operations more quickly, compared to the time required to design and build new infrastructure.
“If we buy a site that’s already built, we could go into business immediately,” Larson said. “If we have to build, that’s going to take some time.”
Commissioners say the appraisal results will help guide the county’s next steps. In the meantime, the currently leased Belt-Armington dumpsite will continue operating as normal while officials evaluate their options.
(APRIL 8, 2025) After weeks of planning, the new solid waste dumpsite near Belt is now open and operational; however, there is still more work to be done.
WATCH:
“The public works department finished their work last week on the temporary site. Republic Services hired a person to come in and manage the site, as in the past. It’s right next door to the old one, so our residents should not have any trouble finding it,” explained Cascade County commissioner Joe Briggs.
The engineers for the project are still working to finish and approve the design for the permanent fixtures.
“Instead of having the drive-over area where you park and then put your trash down into the high containers, until that section is built, the containers are lower and they’re designed so that you can either throw your garbage over the side of it or if you’re taking it in a pick up, you can jump in the back to pick up and just drop it over the side,” Briggs said.
Since the closure of the previous site, residents in the area have had to travel further to dump their trash. The commissioners said several people have reached out in anticipation of having this site up and running.
Briggs added, “It feels good to get one of these things at least partially off the list and back in operation.
According to the commissioners, they are looking into ways to reduce operational costs in the future, including potentially installing a compactor.
(MARCH 11, 2025) In their meeting Tuesday morning, the Cascade County Commissioners voted to approve a new solid waste dumpsite near Belt.
The previous dumpsite lease agreement expired in June of 2024 after the landowner, Jim Bumgarner, and the county commissioners were not able to reach a new agreement.
WATCH:
Bumgarner said, “Communication between the commissioners and myself, actually I didn't even get to talk to the commissioners, I was talking to the attorneys. That stopped at the end of December, and they cleared their stuff out of the property.”
According to the county commissioners, Bumgarner was not willing to give them a suitable long-term lease agreement.
Commissioner Joe Briggs explained, “We needed a long-term lease and what we passed today was a 20-year lease. That's what we need in order to be able to operate with stability and consistency for the public.”
The landowners for the new site, James Warehime and Shirley Warehime, will be leasing the almost three-acre piece of land to Cascade County at the following annual rates:
- July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2030: $2,000/annually
- July 1, 2030 - June 30, 2035: $2,500/annually
- July 1, 2035 - June 30, 2040: $3,000/annually
- July 1, 2040 - June 30, 2045: $3,500/annually
The new site is directly adjacent to the old site along Tiger Butte Road:
The lease agreement for the new dumpsite will begin on March 11th, 2025, and end on March 10th of 2045.
“We have a longer-term lease with the town of Cascade, we have this new one out by Belt, and we’re going to be trying to get 20-year leases on all the rest of the properties we make use of for this purpose,” said commissioner Briggs.
The county will need to acquire a zoning permit before opening the new dumpsite, but in the meantime, commissioner Briggs said they will start getting the site ready to go.
Bumgarner said he would like for the commissioners to reconsider the use of the previous location which had been a public dumpsite since 2013.
“I just want the taxpayers’ money to be spent properly; and if that’s what’s being done, that’s all I ask for,” Bumgarner added.
Following the completed signing of the new lease Tuesday morning, the county commissioners are hopeful the new dumpsite will be open and operational as soon as possible. They don’t know yet when that will be.
