Landfill issues could cause the city of Selma to throw money in the dump, Selma Mayor George Evans said Tuesday.

Evans, who addressed the Public Works and General Services Committee during its Tuesday meeting, took responsibility for items that have been stored behind youth baseball fields on 50 acres of city-owned land off Alabama Highway 219.

The area, Evans said, was originally to be used as a storage facility for tree limbs, brush and leaves. However, municipal solid waste was also being dumped in the area, which drew the attention of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Now, Evans said, he is prepared to do whatever it takes to correct the problem. Unfortunately, he said, this could be an expensive process.

The city, Evans said, has already begun moving the items stored on the land to a facility on Alabama Highway 41, which costs $47.50 per ton. The first load, which was taken Friday, cost $1,200. Evans also said he plans to do whatever is necessary to bring the area up to code.

“I’m going to comply with ADEM and tell them all the details,” he said. “It was a temporary move to get some leaves and trees out there. It didn’t work out and so we have to take them out of there …”

When the council learned the current city landfill would not be able to accommodate the amount of trash necessary, Evans said the council approved a measure to use the site as a temporary storage facility for limbs and brush. Unfortunately, he said other items placed on the street found their way to the pile.

“In the process of doing all that, some other stuff got mixed in there,” he said. “It is legal to take trees. It is legal to take leaves. It is legal to take limbs. There is no law against that. But what happened is, some other stuff got mixed in there and that created the problems.”

Selma City council member and committee member Susan Keith said she feels a wood chipper and mulcher could have helped the city avoid the problem completely.

“We could have a compost pile as part of the recycling program,” Keith said. “There are places that do it. There are other places all over the country that chip up tree limbs and mulch trees. We could let it sit on a lot and let people use it, or it could make it a commodity and sell it.”

However, council member Bennie Ruth Crenshaw, who was in attendance, said there would have to be a system to separate trash and brush or nothing would be accomplished.

The current state of affairs, Crenshaw said, is very discouraging.

“This is a sad situation because we are putting money into a situation that initially could have had funding,” Crenshaw said. “We need those two cells built, and right now we don’t have the money. I’m hoping we will not put the health of the citizens above something else.”

Crenshaw also questioned the use of $100,000 that was originally to be used for the landfill project.

Evans said he is working with representatives of the Community Development Block Grants to secure additional funds.

“We initiated a plan to create two new cells and have not come back to the council yet because we don’t know if there is money or not,” Evans said. “I did talk to the council about this possibility and met with the committee and we decided we had to have a place to put these leaves and trees until we get this done. It would have been temporary.”

Though the situation has gotten a lot of negative attention from ADEM and concerned citizens, Evans said the original intent was to alleviate pressure on the city’s budget.

“The intent was never to deceive anybody,” he said. “It was a temporary plan. Financially, our city is not rich. We were trying to get through this year, and the idea was to take stuff there and not have to pay.”