ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
Landfill officials expect their budget to be $312,500 in the red this year because private haulers are taking trash out of state, where they pay less to bury it.
John Hubbard, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, said the organization has an accumulated surplus of $2.1million that will be used to cover the loss for the budget year that ends June30. Hubbard, however, is estimating a $1.9million loss of revenue for the 1997-98 budget.
Members of the board that governs the authority will discuss options for dealing with that shortfall at their February meeting. Hubbard said a change in fees is not likely to be an option.
Late last summer, Browning Ferris Industries began taking most of the garbage it collects from local businesses to its own landfill in Carter Valley, Tenn. Mike Mee, a representative for BFI, said the company would stop diverting the trash if landfill fees here were reduced. The $55 per ton charged now is the highest in the region.
The resource authority successfully requested a change in its charter last year that would allow it to collect garbage on its own, an action opposed by private haulers. If the authority decides to pursue that option, it will need approval from Roanoke, Roanoke County and the town of Vinton, the localities that share the landfill.
Hubbard said the authority has reduced expenses by $600,000 this year to dampen its losses. He said two of the authority's 38 staff positions have been frozen as vacancies occurred, and no money is being spent on new buildings or equipment. Hubbard also said more trash is being crammed into fewer railroad cars to save on fees paid to Norfolk Southern, which hauls trash from the collection station in Roanoke to the Smith Gap landfill.
With that bad budget news in mind, members of the authority voted to hold off on a recycling study requested by the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.
Supervisors said last month they would end the curbside recycling program that serves 3,700 households - about 15 percent of the county's trash customers - unless the resource authority came up with a regional plan that would include all residents. They gave the authority only 90 days to come up with that plan.
Members of the authority said they were surprised by the cost estimates they received, which ranged from $18,600 to nearly $70,000. They said only the $70,000 proposal was detailed enough to give supervisors the plan they wanted.
Bill Rand, one of two county representatives on the authority, said he had expected the cost to be closer to $10,000. He said he would ask supervisors to give the authority 60 more days to find a cheaper alternative. He said Virginia Tech may be able to do the study, but discussions with university officials were hampered by the December holiday break.
Also Wednesday, members of the authority agreed to pay up to $100,000 for a community park in the Mayflower Hills area on Rutrough Road. The agreement must be approved by Roanoke and Vinton.
Mayflower Hills residents have asked for the park, which they said was promised them when the Rutrough Road landfill was located there in the early 1970s.
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