Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 10, 1994 TAG: 9408100052
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER CHRISTIANSBURG
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Montgomery officials believe the center, set for a September 1995 debut, would make the county the recycling leader for the New River Valley and put it far ahead of most other localities in Virginia.
The project's future could hinge on two factors: going in on a new regional landfill in Pulaski County and persuading other New River Valley governments to send their recyclables to the center.
The supervisors received a briefing Monday on plans for the 43,800-square-foot building and on recent bids to provide special equipment to sort glass, aluminum, steel cans, plastic and paper. The new, 30-foot-high building, to be across from the Mid-County Park and landfill, would be the length of a football field and half as wide. The county now collects recyclables at its landfill and at the Triangle Building across from the Hills department store in Christiansburg.
Joe Draper, a principal with Draper Aden Associates, said engineers will interview three bidders this week and should make a recommendation on the recycling equipment by the Aug. 22 board meeting. The low bid for the equipment was $532,000; the high bid was $1.2 million, but was rejected because it didn't match what the county had asked for.
The recycling center would complement the county's efforts to join the New River Resource Authority, which already operates a landfill serving Pulaski County, Radford and the towns of Pulaski and Dublin. The resource authority is working on plans for a new, 350-acre landfill on Cloyds Mountain.
Montgomery's landfill will run out of space by 1997. The county started talks with the resource authority last fall. Since the spring, it has been talking with Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Virginia Tech on forming a separate trash authority that could join the New River Resource Authority.
In return, the county could be guaranteed a steady flow of recyclables from authority members to make a regional recycling center profitable, or even a break-even proposition. Current recycling efforts break even in some materials and are subsidized by landfill dumping fees in others.
The county could restructure its fees or take other steps to make the new center self-supporting. "We're not sure how we're going to set it up yet," said Randall Bowling, county public facilities director.
The estimated cost of the center would break down as follows: $650,000 for the equipment; $440,000 to move soil that will be used later to close the landfill and get the site ready; and $1.79 million for the building.
The county bought the 20-acre site last year for $500,000 from businessman Bill Matthews and Whitethorne Plantations Inc., after threatening to condemn it because the landowner was asking $100,000 more. The land was part of the former horticultural farm that Virginia Tech swapped in 1986 with Whitethorne Plantations for land on the New River.
by CNB