BY STEPHEN H. COWLES/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Playback58@gmail.com

FRANKLIN—While Suffolk City Council is scheduled this evening to reaffirm its commitment with the Southeastern Public Service Authority, three neighboring localities in Western Tidewater are still researching their relationship to the agency.

Suffolk, which hosts a landfill on Route 58, is one of approximately eight members that uses SPSA to carry away its garbage. The others are Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, and the counties of Isle of Wight and Southampton County.

The authority was created in 1976.

“A resolution stating the City’s understanding of regional efforts to manage solid waste in Southside Hampton Roads after Jan. 24, 2018, and the City’s intent to pursue cooperative development of a regional solid waste management system,” is what’s shown on the agenda list, found on the city’s website (www.suffolkva.us).

Chuckatuck Borough Councilman Mike Duman said essentially the document would give the city manager the go-ahead for negotiations to continue the city’s relationship with SPSA.

“Southampton has taken no position on the issue of continued participation,” said Mike Johnson, county administrator. “I expect some discussion at the next board’s meeting.”

Franklin is likewise reviewing the issue and “waiting for other municipalities,” said Randy Martin, city manager. “We’re still evaluating. It might be May or early June before taking any action,” adding that everybody has to decide by the end of June.

He pointed out the city is “bound by contract through 2018. We are members and will remain as such as long as legislation and the organization exists.”

Martin said the solid waste from the city and Isle of Wight County goes to an alternative site — a private landfill in Waverly. He added that Franklin pays the same rate of $125 a ton as those localities that do send trash to the Suffolk landfill.

“No decision has been made regarding SPSA at this time,” said Don Robertson, spokesman for Isle of Wight County. “But, like the others, I anticipate the Board of Supervisors discussing the matter in the upcoming months.”