Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 26, 1994 TAG: 9405260072
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
At least if you give away the mulch, as Montgomery County officials learned conclusively last weekend.
A week ahead of Saturday's official end of a 90-day mulch giveaway, the Mid-County Landfill ran out of the ground up remains of the winter's devastating ice storms.
What came in as truckload after truckload of fallen tree limbs from Blacksburg and Christiansburg went out as pickup load after trunkload of mulch.
It amazed Tim McCoy, county public works superintendent, who watched last week as the competition heated up for the last few loads of free mulch.
Since March, the county took in 7,072 tons of brush, ground it up, and gave out some 8,730 tons of mulch, said county employee Vickie Swinney, who checked the figures in the computer on Wednesday.
The mulch figure is greater than the brush figure because the county already had a stockpile from tree limbs felled by last June's windstorm.
McCoy wasn't making any promises, but said Wednesday he might try to grind a little more mulch with some brush that's come in this week.
After Saturday, mulch-seekers will have to pay the usual fee of $15 per ton at the Mid-County Landfill, if there's any mulch available.
The county had also waived the $38 per ton fee to dump tree limbs to aid the massive cleanup efforts in Blacksburg and Christiansburg. But that deal ended April 30.
Montgomery expects to cover most of the costs of the brush collection and mulch giveaway through federal disaster aid funds.
In other county developments this week, a Narrows construction company has started repairs on the Montgomery County Courthouse roof.
The East Main Street sidewalk beside the courthouse has been closed for eight months after a brick fell from the upper story because of roof damage. To make room for the contractor's equipment, the county will close the alley off East Main and immediately beside the courthouse.
The Board of Supervisors awarded a $122,000 contract to A.R. Neely Co. in January, but the work could not begin until spring.
How long it will take to repair the roof remains a question that depends on how bad the damage is and how many workers the company can put on the project, County Administrator Betty Thomas said Wednesday.
by CNB