Hail damage repairs keep Billings landfill busy, but lines are getting shorter

It may not be so apparent for those people waiting in what are sometimes hourlong lines at the Billings landfill, but the number of monthly visits has gone down fromits summer peak.

In June, a month after a hailstorm damaged thousands of Billings roofs, about 19,000 vehicles visited the landfill, said Vern Heisler, Billings deputy public works director many laden with storm-damaged roofing material.

By September, 16,700 vehicles ranging from pickups to large commercial rigs, many of them still loaded with has-been roofs had tipped the scales at the landfill, at 5240 Jellison Road. To date this month, 14,000 vehicles had dropped off their loads at the landfill, including at whats known as the Class 4 section, which is reserved for construction waste.

I am not there hourly, but I think those lines are a lot shorter than they were a month ago, said Vester Wilson, the citys solid-waste superintendent.

Much of the traffic, the two officials said, is still related to so many residents receiving new roofs in the aftermath of the May 18 hailstorm. In the weeks after the storm, the citys Building Division was issuing about 100 permits every day for roof replacement.

Whenever a permit is issued, that comes off the roof and into the landfill, Heisler said.

The Building Divisions permit coordinator, Mary Krenzler, said Tuesday that the number is now down to 30-50 permits issued each day. She cited falling temperatures and fewer hours of daylight as possible contributing factors for the reduction in permits.

Truck drivers carrying roofing materials head straight to the landfills Class 4 section, which is on the far west portion of the landfill. To reduce wait times, a second scale was installed last year at the lower end of the landfill, and that has pulled up to 200 trucks daily from the line of other landfill customers.

Still, to get into the landfill, one must first wait in line.

What that means, Heisler said, is that whether the person in front of you has a bag of trash or a roof, weve got to wait our turn.

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Hail damage repairs keep Billings landfill busy, but lines are getting shorter