Distribution of $3.5 million from former landfill to Schuylkill municipalities hits a snag

Thirty-five years after the North Schuylkill Landfill closed, that operation and its transfer station still have almost $3.5 million remaining, money that the municipalities that operated it were finally set to receive.

That disbursement has hit a snag, though, with no clear resolution in sight.

The holdup stems from differing opinions about a vote at the landfill association’s board meeting in September 2023.

Delegates from 16 of the association’s 17 member municipalities were present when it was voted on unanimously to distribute the money equally among those boroughs and townships, according to association president David Briggs.

Each municipality was designated to receive about $204,000 from the $2.9 million in funds remaining from the landfill, which opened in West Mahanoy Township in 1971. They were also to get another $35,000 from the $600,000 remaining from the transfer station, which the association sold in 2010 and is still in operation.

Afterward, though, Frackville officials have questioned whether the vote was actually for an equal distribution of funds and have called for another meeting on the issue.

Four of the municipalities that currently belong to the association were not charter members of the landfill and are therefore not entitled to full shares, Frackville borough solicitor Mark Semanchik said.

They are McAdoo, Ashland, Gordon and Butler Township, which did not pay the same annual assessments that the charter members did and therefore do not deserve landfill payments, only their shares of the remaining transfer station funds, he said. The landfill money should be divided among the other 13 municipalities, amounting to $226,000 each, in addition to their transfer station shares, Semanchik said.

Original members of the landfill include Frackville, Delano Township, East Union Township, Gilberton, Girardville, Mahanoy City, Mahanoy Township, Ringtown, Rush Township, Ryan Township, Shenandoah, Union Township and West Mahanoy Township.

Vegetation covers the former North Schuylkill Landfill near Shenandoah, Friday, March 21, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)

Frackville, Shenandoah, Ringtown and West Mahanoy Township have called for a meeting with the landfill association to discuss the matter further.

“Those who paid in (to the landfill) should receive that money,” Semanchik said this week. “Those who didn’t pay in have no claim to it.”

So far the association has not formally responded to the municipalities that requested the meeting, but Briggs, the association president, said that he does not plan to meet again.

Briggs, who is also a Union Township supervisor, said that the meeting when the vote was taken decided the matter.

“It’s already voted on,” he said of the distribution of funds.

The association officers recently drafted a letter that stated:

“So, the association agrees to not distribute the money at this time until all municipalities agree to equal shares. Other than the last year, nobody came to the meetings except for a few members now and then… That money sat in the bank for 34 years so it can sit in the bank for another 34 years.”

If members take the association to court and win, that money would come from the funds set to be distributed, the letter said.

Dave Briggs, president of the North Schuylkill Landfill Association, stands at the site of a former landfill, Friday, March 21, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)

The association has been winding down the landfill closure for years. That has included liquidation of the real estate, machinery, equipment, furniture and fixtures, having its bond from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection released, and paying its bills, among other things.

Briggs sees that work as now being completed, other than issuing checks to member municipalities, which the association is prepared to do when all members agree to it.

West Mahanoy supervisors chairman Paul “Pepper” Martin said the township requested that meeting to better understand the funding distribution after already having met with Frackville officials to learn their stance.

“There are two sides to every story,” he said. “We’ve heard one side, and now we want to hear theirs (the association’s).”

Martin said that he knows member municipalities are counting on receiving the remaining landfill money though.

West Mahanoy has already spent some of the money it anticipates receiving by buying a new township police car for about $80,000.

“Lesson learned,” he said. “Don’t buy anything until the money is there.”

Frackville Council President Ron Jordan said the borough appreciates the work the association did over the years and agrees that the four newest member municipalities deserve transfer station funds. He disagrees with the association that they deserve landfill shares.

“We don’t want to be the bad guys,” Jordan said. “We don’t want to hold things up for the other municipalities. But our taxpayers have the right to receive that money, not just here in Frackville but in the other 12 (charter) municipalities. We’ve already waited 35 years. Let’s take a few more months and have another meeting.”

As one of the four municipalities not considered charter members, Ashland thinks it still deserves a full landfill share.

“We feel we were in it (the association) long enough,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair to hold things up. We don’t want to be strong-armed.”

Shenandoah Council President Joe Boris said that the borough has not taken a stance on the distribution of funds, but wants to meet again with the association to clear up some confusion on the matter.

“My main concern is seeing that Shenandoah gets its fair share,” he said.

Attorney Robert Matta serves as solicitor of both Union Township and Ringtown and has advised both municipalities to sit back and see what happens, whether that’s a prompt distribution of funds or a lawsuit that delays those payments.

“They’re taking no official positions on this,” he said of Ringtown Council and Union Township Supervisors.

For smaller Schuylkill municipalities that struggle to cover expenses, though, the eventual payments will be welcome once they arrive, he said.

“Everybody can sure use the money,” he said. “It will be a windfall.”