Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993 TAG: 9309240181
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By Steve Kark correspondent
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
At least for now, rural residents will continue to carry their own trash to the green dumpster boxes. However, they will have to pay the county $12 to $14 a month to haul the dumpster contents to a landfill.
Those changes in plans resulted from the county supervisors' meeting Wednesday night when they rejected an offer from a private hauler, General Refuse Service of Cabell County, W.Va., for countywide service.
The supervisors' 3-2 vote against the offer reflected the divisive nature of this issue, which one of them described as "a lousy mess."
Even the two men on the county's trash committee, Supervisors Larry J. Williams and George Hedrick, couldn't agree. Hedrick voted to accept the offer and Williams voted against it.
Only Hedrick and Supervisor Bobby Compton favored going with General Refuse's offer. Supervisors Herbert "Hub" Brown, Samuel "Ted" Timberlake and Williams voted against it.
Williams said, "I didn't feel comfortable with the proposal they presented to us, but that doesn't mean we won't talk to them again in the future."
Hedrick would say only that he and Williams "disagreed, but that's happened before and it will happen again. What's done is done. Now we'll work together to see it's done right."
The main reason the supervisors rejected General Refuse's offer was a change from the company's estimate on the cost per household, Williams said.
General Refuse originally said countywide door-to-door pickup would be $13.75 per household. However, the towns of Pearisburg, Narrows and Glen Lyn decided to dispose of trash on their own.
That pushed General Refuse's price up to $22 per household, because collecting in town, where there's little distance between pickup points, costs less than scattered stops in rural aras.
Only the towns of Rich Creek and Pembroke tentatively decided to go with the county's trash plan.
The new offer would have cost $22 per household, said Williams. "I just couldn't accept that," he said.
The county itself is uncertain of the exact cost of disposal, because the supervisors haven't decided where the trash will go. They are considering three landfills, any one of which could be used on either a short- or long-term basis.
Each has different costs. The Mercer County, W.Va., landfill wanted a three- to five-year commitment and a 35-ton-per-day guarantee from the county, Williams said. Mercer offered a $37-per-ton tipping fee for one year only; after that, the fees could increase to as much as $45 per ton, he said.
Both the Montgomery County landfill and the New River Resource Authority near Radford are being considered as well. However, no commitment has been made with either one, he said.
Currently, Montgomery County does not accept trash from outside the county. Montgomery has considered accepting trash from Giles temporarily, but would first have to hold a public hearing on changing an ordinance that prohibits trash from outside Montgomery County, Williams said. Discussions with the New River Resource Authority also are preliminary, he said. Williams said Giles hopes to work something out in the New River Valley because it could be cheaper in the long run, and keep the resulting revenues in the valley.
Williams said the cost for dumping trash at either landfill is still being negotiated, though Timberlake said tipping fees at the Montgomery County landfill would be $53 per ton.
Both Hedrick and Williams stressed that no matter which landfill accepts the trash, the tipping fees could be reduced if Giles does more recycling.
"If we can reduce the amount of trash, we can reduce - or at least control - the cost of disposing of it," Williams said.
Giles County's landfill is scheduled to close Oct. 9, though the county likely will stop dumping there a few days before that, Williams said.
Though no more trash will go into the landfill, a lot of money will. Closing it in accordance with state and federal standards will cost at least $500,000 and perhaps as much as $2 million, he said. After it is closed and covered, the county must monitor the ground water for 10 years, he said.
Tax money that used to go for operating the landfill will now go toward closing it. Williams said the county spent close to $500,000 last year to both collect trash and operate the landfill.
Although $1 million has been budgeted for trash disposal this year, all of that will be reserved to close the landfill, he said.
The monthly fees from county residents will be used to pay the cost of trucking the trash outside the county. "We feel terrible about having to do it this way," Williams said, "but we have to be realistic and deal with this problem."
Though the exact monthly rate hasn't been determined, the county will begin charging residents for trash disposal on Oct. 1. However, the bills probably won't be received until November.
by CNB