Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 21, 1993 TAG: 9309210070
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BY KEVIN KITTREDGE staff writer
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Long
In fact, almost no one is happy about it.
"Nobody's happy and nobody knows what to do," said Samuel G. "Ted" Timberlake, a member of the county's board of supervisors. "Have you ever seen such a lousy mess in your life?"
The county - whose landfill must be closed Oct. 9 - is putting the final touches on a short-term contract with General Refuse Service of Cabell County, W.Va., to collect and haul the county's garbage to another landfill - probably in Montgomery County.
A new solution for the county's garbage problems will be expensive. Giles County paid about $300,000 to collect garbage and run its landfill last year, said the county's executive secretary, Jane Davis.
This year, costs will soar above $1 million, she said - as the county works to close its own landfill, pay another landfill's tipping fees and switch to private trash pickup.
Tipping fees at the Montgomery County Landfill will be $53 per ton, Timberlake Tipping fees at the Montgomery County Landfill will be $53 per ton, Timberlake said. He said the contract with General Refuse Service still is being negotiated, but probably will cover the cost of trash pickup plus 10 percent - a figure likely to total several hundred thousand dollars.
In a sense, it's a sign of the times - in which new environmental regulations are driving up garbage disposal costs throughout the country.
The towns of Narrows, Pearisburg and Glen Lyn all have rejected the county's plans, however, and will go it alone.
"The towns don't feel we were permitted to participate in coming up with a countywide solution, and all of the options may not have been explored," said Pearisburg Town Manager Ken Vittum. "We respect that they [county officials] have put a lot of work into this, and feel that it's the best we can do. I think we would agree with the county that this isn't something that is easy to solve."
Many county residents, meanwhile, are unhappy about having to pay for garbage pickup for the first time.
County residents who do not live in Narrows, Pearisburg or Glen Lyn soon will have to pay a garbage collection fee tentatively set at $13.75 per month.
In comparison, Narrows will continue to pick up its own residential trash and will haul it to the Mercer County, W.Va., landfill for a residential charge of $10 a month and still have a comfortable cushion in its budget, said Town Manager Rob Mercure. The town, however, serves a much smaller, more compact area than the rural, mountainous county.
County Supervisor Larry Jay Williams said the county was forced to do something.
Not only is the county's landfill about to be closed, but some alternative also was needed to the dozens of green boxes now used for trash disposal. The boxes are used by people from other counties and also have become receptacles for motor oil, car batteries and other waste that landfills no longer accept, said Williams and others.
Some of the green boxes will remain for a while due to unhappiness over their removal, county supervisors said.
But county residents still will have to pay a fee for curb pickup, whether or not they choose to use the remaining green boxes, Williams said.
Giles County's problems are particularly acute because of the karst terrain that dominates its hilly landscape. The area is riddled with cracked, cavernous limestone, which can funnel landfill effluent into ground-water supplies.
After struggling to find a suitable site for a new landfill in such terrain, the county decided to send its garbage elsewhere, using a private refuse service.
As of Friday, the towns of Pembroke and Rich Creek were expected to go along.
Officials in the other towns have cited proposed large increases in commercial garbage collection rates as the main reason they will not participate.
Narrows Mayor Don Richardson said the town estimated what it might cost Narrows to dispose of commercial trash - and it could came out to be less than one-fourth of what the county proposes charging businesses.
"We're going to continue to haul our own," said Richardson.
Giles County, meanwhile, faces skyrocketing costs. In addition to closing its landfill, covering landfill tipping fees at another landfill - probably Montgomery County's - and paying an estimated $750,000 to the refuse service for trash pickup, the county has had to hire clerks and buy computers and other office equipment to handle billing for trash service, something it has never done before.
General Refuse Service was chosen from among five bidders for the county's trash business.
Complicating matters, whispers soon spread that a company representative, Sloan Smith - who has been working with the county - has a prison record for embezzlement.
All of the officials interviewed for this story said they were aware of Smith's past.
Smith - formerly a bank officer at a Bluefield bank - pleaded guilty to embezzlement on Oct. 30, 1987, and was sent to a federal prison in Alderson, W.Va., court records show.
Smith said Monday that she was not an owner of the company, just an employee and that Giles County "should judge us on me and what General Refuse has said to them. I don't want this to be an issue and hurt General Refuse."
Company President Randie Lawson said Smith was a "very good employee" who has worked for the company about three years. "What does one of my employee's past have to do with my company? Everybody has a past."
An information sheet the company provided the county about itself states that no General Refuse Service officers have criminal records.
Customers spoke highly of the company.
"I've worked with them personally, and I feel they are a reputable company," said Maureen Hauldren, director of the Lincoln County Solid Waste Authority in West Virginia. "They've been very beneficial in helping us implement our projects."
"I can't think of any major problems," said Karen Knisley, utility billing supervisor for Gallipolis, Ohio - which recently began using General Refuse Service for trash pickup. "Of course, you're always going to have some problems."
She said some have complained about the heavy bags that now must be used for disposal of tree branches and other yard waste in Gallipolis.
But with new environmental regulations, Knisley said, "They're going to have to get used to more than that in the future."
Officials in Giles County agree.
Vittum, for one, said Pearisburg has not even begun to address such problems such as recycling and disposal of yard waste.
"The future doesn't look like it's going to get any simpler, that's for sure," Vittum said.
by CNB