Property Owners React To Fee Assessment For Bankrupt NABORS Landfill

KUAF | By Jacqueline Froelich

Published March 30, 2018 at 12:53 PM CDT

More than 70 Carroll County residents showed up for a public meeting Wednesday morning at Berryville Community Center to learn why they are being forced to pay the debt on and clean up a defunct landfill in rural Baxter County.

Without public notice, more than 72,600 property owners in Carroll, Newton, Boone, Baxter, Searcy and Marion counties were assessed an additional property tax fee this spring. The new fee is intended to pay the debt and closure costs for a regional landfill in Baxter County abandoned several years ago by members of the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District. A series of hastily called hearings, hosted by state legislators and district lawyers, was held this week to address the court-ordered fee.