ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606240005
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: CLAYTON BRADDOCK STAFF WRITER
Solid waste - once called garbage or trash - will soon shift into a higher gear in Giles County.
Same drivers and same trash, same pay but a new payroll, new leadership, new outlook - all beginning July 1 when the Public Service Authority takes command.
On that date Tim Brown, executive director of the PSA will still manage the PSA's massive - and sometimes troublesome - water distribution project, but will assume his additional role as director of the solid waste program.
What used to be directed by the county Board of Supervisors will be replaced by the PSA, generally known for its leadership in the countywide water project that leaders hope will open the door to industry and a growing population.
Most residents aren't as familiar with the water project, but they know a lot about trash pickup and paying monthly bills.
Managing solid waste will be a new task for the PSA, one planned a year ago as a way of placing the two big projects in the hands of a single authority. The new role will make the PSA a crucial political entity.
The new PSA program will go beyond waste collection to improving past performance of solid waste, the economics of the process and "how we deal with the people of this county," Brown said.
Among new objectives, Brown said, are:
* General improvements in recycling, including an expanded public awareness program about its value.
* Improvements in collecting cardboard materials.
* Greater use of green boxes, including relocation of existing ones.
* Established collection rates based on the weight of material.
While the PSA will work to improve recycling, the county will hire a recycling coordinator to manage its own recycling role to meet state requirements. The new coordinator will play a role in the PSA's program, said Roger "Butch" Mullins, county administrator.
Most of his energy will go into the new solid waste program, he said. Work on the water project "is out of our hands" for now because most of the agreements about water usage and rates have been approved except a continuing battle between the county and Pembroke, Brown said.
"I feel good about our effort in solid waste," he said. "With a consolidated effort, I think there will be a lot of savings. "A large part of my activities on solid waste will be focused on the first year," said Brown, who earns $37,000 holding down both jobs, half on water, half on solid waste.
When solid waste trucks, once owned by the county, roll out of the former Strong Inc. building on U.S. 460 east of Pembroke, the drivers' aims and directions will be the same yet different in much of their door-to-door countywide rounds to homes and businesses from Newport to Glen Lyn.
The brick building rests on a half-acre plot leased from the county for $1,000 a month and a three-acre lot purchased for $95,000.
To save rental money, Brown will leave his solitary office in the Pearisburg Community Center and move to new PSA quarters.
When the trucks begin their routes, the watchful eyes of residents will be the same as always because gathering household trash and other materials will be much the same. But the task can generate a lot of voter sensitivity - the same kind that took the jobs of some former supervisors in the 1995 election.
But those open eyes will have a different focus because of the new management, especially if pickup shifts into low gear or monthly bills strike a sour note with too many Giles County citizens.
Another gear shift for Brown and the PSA is the move into a broader "bureaucracy."
One of Brown's major roles since he was hired in October, 1994, has required more "politicking" with elected county officials, those in each of the county's six towns and the leadership of the PSA itself. This makes it a separate but substantial bureaucracy important to the county and the towns when it comes to the water projects along the U. S. 460 corridor.
Such a role also includes working with county and town attorneys, who face the task of squeezing out the best legal language suitable to everything from water rates to changes in policies. Both towns and counties have often moved through numerous drafts of policies and agreements.
These elected and appointed officials do not constitute a bureaucracy, but the role for Brown - and the officials themselves - take on the structure and energy of such a political entity.
With the solid waste program under Brown's management next month, he will lead a very specific bureaucracy: 16 employees, all once on the payroll of the county Board of Supervisors and the towns of Narrows and Pearisburg. The staff includes a waste collection foreman, two clerks and 12 drivers and collectors who operate 11 trash trucks.
Brown is no stranger to either water or people management. He holds a degree in water ecology from the University of Massachusetts, a field in which he taught at Mary Washington College, and earlier supervised engineers and laboratory employees in a regulatory agency. "I have the management skills in both organization and budgets," he said. The latter skill will come in handy with $1.13 million in anticipated revenues and a balanced budget in the same amount to pay personnel salaries and fees and administration.
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