Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 21, 1991 TAG: 9103220822
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY CHARLES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: FINCASTLE/ LENGTH: Medium
The county Board of Supervisors, pressed with a rapidly filling landfill and a state mandate to recycle, decided Monday to ban grass clippings.
The supervisors also authorized an education program to try to convince homeowners that it is better to leave clippings where they fall on lawns. The clippings eventually will enrich the soil and help improve the lawns, according to Rick Bates, Virginia Tech Extension agent in Botetourt.
"There is no real good reason to remove clippings from lawns unless they are very heavy," Bates said.
However, Bates said it will require a "substantial" educational program to persuade homeowners to leave the clippings on the lawn. Many county homeowners, he said, are convinced clippings should be removed. Raking and bagging clippings, he added, have gotten to be an established habit with many others.
But Wendy Wingo, chairwoman of the supervisors, said she thinks most of Botetourt's citizens are aware now of the landfill problems and will be willing to keep their clippings to help extend the life of the landfill.
The problem with clippings in the landfill is that they are bulky and don't break down easily, said John Williamson, county administrator.
Williamson also said it is not easy for the county to provide a separate landfill or compost facility to handle grass clippings alone. Clippings tend to create an objectionable odor if not handled properly, he said, and for that reason state permits are needed for a grass clipping compost pile.
Trash pickup in Botetourt is handled by private collectors, and one of them, L.A. Kessler of Cloverdale, predicted that problems could develop if property owners are encouraged to keep the clippings on their own property.
He fears that many people will pile clippings at the backs of their yards and that these piles will create odor.
Kessler said he can pick up clippings from homeowners and spread them on a farm field he owns.
But it would require a special truck different from the regular refuse truck, and "I can't afford to run two trucks for the price of one." For that reason, he said, he probably would have to charge a separate grass clipping fee.
On another matter, the supervisors learned from G.E. Whiteside, the county's highway representative, that the state will cut more money than originally announced from the county's share of secondary construction funds.
Whiteside, an assistant resident engineer in the Salem District of the Virginia Department of Transportation, said the cut will amount to $253,046, to be subtracted from the $1,260,346 the county expected to get.
However, the effect of the additional cut may be offset by lower bids from contractors on highway work. Whiteside said more contractors throughout the state are bidding on jobs and are making relatively low bids.
Whiteside said that in the current difficult economic times all contractors are in lively competition for available work.
In other matters:
The board appointed Denise Sprinkle, a teacher at Botetourt Intermediate School, as the Fincastle Magisterial District representative on the county Planning Commission.
The board agreed to contribute $7,200 to Troutville so a water line the town plans to install can be of 12-inch pipe instead of 10-inch. The town is running the line to the Simmons Industrial Park on U.S. 11 but the county may want to extend the line southward along U.S. 11.
The supervisors authorized the preparation of a resolution to state officials expressing the board's opposition to possibly splitting the county between two General Assembly districts when districts in the state are revamped based on the 1990 census. The supervisors also will seek to keep Botetourt out of the district that embraces Roanoke and Roanoke County because they fear the urban areas would overshadow rural Botetourt. Board members said other counties that have been split between two districts did not get the full attention of representatives in either district.
The board adopted a resolution supporting the Roanoke Area Job Opportunities Convention to be held May 15 at the Roanoke Civic Center. Susan Kidd, director of the Botetourt County Vocational School, said that about 90 seniors from Botetourt schools plan to participate. About 50 businesses that hire vocational workers will interview seniors and possibly offer them jobs.
> The board adopted a resolution of appreciation recognizing the late Connie Roark Guilliams for her work with the Troutville and Fincastle volunteer rescue squads and for her work as an emergency medical technician. She died of leukemia Feb. 14 at age 31.
The board scheduled a public hearing for its April meeting on a request for naming seven streets in the area south of Virginia 606.
by CNB