Partially as a reward for receiving scholarship money to attend Mississippi State, my parents bought me a Toyota truck during my last year of high school. In the way reckless teens sometimes do, I frequently loaded friends into the truck and went mud ridin’. Oh, it was great fun.

We would typically get on Hwy. 82 – heading toward Starkville – and pull off just before the big river bridge onto an access road that went under the bridge. The access road was heavily rutted, and I would run through the muddiest areas, gleefully covering the normally black truck with brown mud. We would pull under the bridge and then hop in the Tenn-Tom – near what is now the end of the Riverwalk – where we would swim a bit before running back through the mud on the way home.

Of course as soon as I was out of the house and paying my own bills, my mud ridin’ days ended. That is, they ended until Friday morning.

Under Thursday afternoon’s hot sun, son Benjamin and I loaded some random debris into the back of my pickup: old sacks of hardened mortar, a couple of wooden pallets, bricks. We didn’t finish until after the Columbus Sanitation Landfill was closed, so we decided we would wake up early Friday and head to the dump.

For those who have never been, Columbus’ landfill is on Armstrong Road, which is near the intersection of Yorkville Road and South Lehmberg. Operated by the city’s department of public works, the 16.1-acre Class I rubbish landfill is one of the tallest points in the city. From the top of the pile of garbage you can see Steel Dynamics, which is about 13 miles away as the crow flies.

To get to the top of the pile – which is where you have to go to dump your load – it turns out you have to go mud ridin’.

I currently drive another Toyota truck: a 2016 Tundra TRD Pro. It’s one of the large four wheel drive rigs that’s made for off-roading. And while I typically only drive it to and from the office, on Friday at least, the obnoxious size of the truck was called for.

None of my teenage mud holes have anything on the city-maintained road that snakes through the landfill. The dirt road is heavily rutted, with at least half a dozen very deep and steep dips. My truck bottomed out several times while traversing the dips, and by the time I reached the dumping area, mud had covered the truck. My front bumper, mud flaps, running boards and trailer hitch were absolutely caked with mud. Stray pieces of lumber littered the road in places, so I tried to watch for nails as best I could with mud splatting against my windshield.

It wasn’t fun.

To pay for your load, you drive onto a scale. A public works employee who sits in a trailer records your weight going in and going out. You pay for the difference in weight, with a minimum fee of $10. According to the city’s website, the landfill accepts furniture, appliances, construction waste and landscaping waste.

Columbus’ landfill has a long history of questionable operations. In 2009, a full-time city employee was arrested for using a city truck to steal from a building at the landfill. In 2011, the then-public works director was suspended and another employee was fired over allegedly allowing after hours dumping and receiving undocumented payments. For multiple years recently, the city’s audit report has noted that landfill receipts are not properly reconciled with the actual money received, a basic check and balance to ensure the correct amount of money is being collected and deposited.

For the record, the employees on duty Friday were helpful, and my receipt was computer generated and included my weight going in and my weight leaving. The only dirty business I witnessed was my truck, which afterward needed $6 worth of rinsing in a car wash bay on Highway 69.

In its current state, the Columbus landfill is nearly unusable to citizens. I know I won’t return. It’s not worth the risk to my vehicle.

I encourage the mayor and city councilmen to take a drive out there. If they do, I hope they’re ready for some mud ridin’. And not the fun kind.

Peter Imes is editor and publisher of The Dispatch. You can email him at [email protected].

Peter Imes is publisher of The Dispatch. You can email him at [email protected].

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