By AARON MUELLER

Niles Daily Star

It’s been a long wait, but the Southeast Berrien County landfill board finally received an in-depth appraisal of the landfill.

The appraisal, completed by Huntington Realty Advisors out of South Bend, revealed the landfill to be worth between $18 million and $20 million. It also stated the landfill has space for three more cells with an estimated life of five to six years on the current cells.

The board, which has representatives from each of the five municipalities that own the landfill, voted to sell the landfill in May.

Niles Township Supervisor Jim Kidwell made the announcement of receiving the appraisal at Monday night’s Niles Township board meeting. Kidwell, who was a frontrunner in getting the landfill board to pursue selling it, said the appraisal was slightly less than he had thought it might be.

“This is just an estimate,” he said. “Someone could go higher.”

Still, with Niles Township having the most liability of any municipality based on its population, it would stand to gain the most from the sale of the landfill. The City of Niles has the second highest population and would receive  the second most amount of money from the sale.

One of the landfill’s cells could be full by this coming spring, and Bertrand Township trustee Dick Haigh has been a proponent of pursuing a $700,000 bank loan to replace it.

The motion to pursue the bank loan was tabled at a recent meeting and the issue hasn’t been revisited.

Haigh has been a proponent of keeping the landfill and held a public forum July 22 to voice his opinions and allow others to share theirs.

The next landfill board meeting will take place Aug. 25, when they will discuss the appraisal and future action.