LAND TO BE CONDEMNED FOR LANDFILL, RECYCLING USES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993                   TAG: 9304140216
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
LAND TO BE CONDEMNED FOR LANDFILL, RECYCLING USES
Property next to Montgomery County's mid-county landfill will be condemned to make way for a new county recycling building and to provide fill dirt to extend the landfill's life.
The 28 acres south of the landfill near the Market Place shopping center is the same tract that Blacksburg businessman Bill Matthews of Whitethorne Plantations Inc. has proposed for a townhouse development.
The supervisors voted unanimously Monday night following a closed session to condemn the property.
County Administrator Betty Thomas said the county had offered Whitethorne Plantations $554,000 for the property based on an appraisal. Matthews, however, turned down the offer and had asked $600,000 for roughly 20 acres or $700,000 for the entire parcel, she said.
The county had conducted studies on the property and negotiated for its purchase for many months, County Attorney Roy Thorpe said.
The supervisors plan to build a $700,000 building on the land, in which the county would consolidate all its recycling operations now located in the Triangle building across from the Christiansburg Hills Department Store. The county recycles 18 percent of its waste but is under state orders to recycle 25 percent by 1995.
In February, Matthews asked the county to rezone the property from agricultural to multifamily residential for a development of 175 townhouses.
Matthews is treasurer of Whitethorne Plantations. The president of the corporation is Abingdon businessman J.D. Nicewonder Jr. The land, part of the old Virginia Tech horticultural farm, was swapped by Tech to Whitethorne for land on the New River.
Besides land for the recycling building, the county wants to take fill dirt from the property for use at the landfill. The county needs the dirt to get the full life out of the landfill, now estimated to close in 1999.
Draper-Aden Associates of Blacksburg, the county's engineering firm for the landfill, has estimated that 186,000 to 341,800 cubic yards of soil will be needed to get the full life out of the landfill. If the soil had to be hauled in from outside, it would require 22 trips a day for two years by 16-ton dump trucks.
"If we have to purchase the soil and haul it in from outside you can imagine what the cost would be," Thomas said.
In other business Monday, the supervisors:

Approved a $30 fee for door-to-door salesman. The fee will help cover the cost of state and federal criminal checks on those seeking permits to conduct door-to-door sales. Among those exempt from the fee are charitable groups, churches and newspapers.

Named Supervisor Jim Moore of Blacksburg as the board's representative on the county Social Services Board.

Awarded the contract for the 1994 real estate reassessment to Wingate Appraisal Service of Roanoke at $7.90 a parcel, not to exceed $237,000. Wingate also conducted the 1990 reassessment.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB