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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 19, 1994                   TAG: 9411220037
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NR-8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MONTGOMERY BOND RATING UPGRADED TO `A1'

Moody's Investor Services, a bond rating agency, has upgraded Montgomery from an "A" rating to "A1," County Administrator Betty Thomas announced Friday.

"The higher a local government's bond rating, the lower rates it can expect in a competitive sale," said Larry Linkous, Board of Supervisors chairman. That translates to a lower cost to taxpayers in repaying interest on the bonds.

The county will be selling the bonds Tuesday to finance an expansion of the Blacksburg library branch and the construction of a new health and human services building in Christiansburg. Construction on both projects is to begin in the spring.

Moody's made the rating change after studying Montgomery's economy and the finances, debt and administration of the county government, according to Assistant County Administrator Jeff Lunsford.

While the rating boost is good news, the Federal Reserve's move to increase key interest rates this week - the sixth time this year - will probably end up costing the county more in debt service.

"When the Fed tightens credit, credit gets tightened anywhere," Lunsford said.

While county voters approved the bond sale a year ago, the Board of Supervisors decided last winter to delay the sale until now. That's because most board members wanted to save on first-year debt service costs and avoid a higher tax increase.

At the same time, other board members worried that last year's record-low interest rates would not last and increases would end up costing the county more in the long run than it saved in the first year.

Meanwhile, the board is to decide Monday whether to drop a controversial plan to enforce curbside collection of trash in the Mount Tabor Road area.

Instead, the county would consolidate its greenbox trash collection system. Residents in the Mount Tabor Road area of Montgomery were to have been the test area for the curbside plan, but many balked at the possibility of paying up to $15 a month for the service.

The supervisors will receive a recommendation from their Greenbox Committee to open a minimum of eight centralized collection sites, rather than the current system of having 260 boxes scattered across 60 sites in the rural areas of Montgomery.

The new consolidated collection centers would be modeled on a prototype located near Prices Fork. That site is fenced to prevent illegal, after-hours dumping, and staffed during the day to limit trash drop off to county residents. Though most of the new consolidated sites will simply be upgraded, existing greenbox locations, the county will have to obtain new sites in the Ellett Valley, Mount Tabor and Riner areas.

The supervisors will be asked to spend $50,000 to get the plan rolling this budget year, which ends in June. The idea is to save money on landfill tipping fees and space in the Mid-County Landfill by prohibiting noncounty residents from dumping their trash in the greenboxes.