Drop box: County proposes alternative to Palouse chipper

After discontinuing the local service for yard waste last January due to costs and misuse, the Palouse city council listened to a proposal for another way to go about it.

Whitman County Commissioner Greg Partch at the July 10 Palouse council meeting suggested that the county could drop off a collection container for yard debris. The collection box would be hauled back to the county’s landfill site.

Whitman County Solid Waste Manager David Nails, who was with Partch at the meeting, said it costs about $50 an hour to operate a traditional wood chipper program, and the drop-box service would be a...