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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 22, 1993                   TAG: 9304220423
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE                                LENGTH: Medium

TIRE-SHREDDING PROGRAM TO START IN SOUTHWEST VA.

Members of the Craig County Board of Supervisors learned this week that the shredding program has won two grants - one for $600,000 from the Virginia Department of Waste Management and the other for $15,000 from the Virginia Center on Rural Development.

The program will begin with three mobile shredders that will be moved from locality to locality as old tires accumulate. One shredder will be based in the Roanoke Valley and the other two in Radford and Lebanon.

The Appalachian Regional Recycling Consortium, a cooperative recycling service operating in six planning district commission areas, will operate the program. The consortium was formed by a group of smaller localities in Southwest Virginia to work cooperatively on big projects that none of the communities could accomplish alone.

Craig County Administrator Richard Flora told the supervisors Tuesday that the two grants fall short of covering startup costs for the recycling program and that participating communities are being asked to make up the difference.

The exact amount needed is not yet known, but Flora said he was told Craig's share would be no more than about $800. The supervisors voted to pay the additional amount.

In what seems an ironic development, Debbie Kendall of the Fifth Planning District Commission said there is no market at the moment for shredded tires.

For that reason, she said in a letter to the Craig supervisors, each locality in the program will be asked to dispose of the shreds of tires it provides.

One possible use, she said, is to use the shreds in asphalt to pave roads.

In other action:

The supervisors approved a conditional-use permit to allow James and Ellen Horn to build an indoor archery range beside their Hunter's Den store on Virginia 311 south of New Castle. The archery range would be 32 feet by 100 feet.

The supervisors decided to try to work an expenditure of $1,025 for the League of Older Americans into the county's 1993-94 fiscal budget.

Susan B. Williams, the league's executive director, said the league serves 820 elderly Craig residents. She said services provided to Craig's elderly during 1991-92 were worth more than $34,000.

The supervisors decided to meet again Monday at 7 p.m. for a work session on the next fiscal year's county budget.