ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 23, 1996 TAG: 9611250127
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
An agreement negotiated over the past eight months to merge two of the New River Valley's largest trash authorities into one regional group may be wiped out by the Dublin Town Council.
The agreement set out terms for the Montgomery County Regional Solid Waste Authority to become a member of the New River Resource Authority.
"We weren't included in any of the negotiations. I appreciate the job that was done, but we were excluded," said Councilman Benny Skeens. "I probably will vote against it on account of that."
"I'm against this contract altogether," added Councilman Sam Gregory.
If the agreement is not approved by all three members of the New River authority - the city of Radford, Pulaski County and town of Dublin - it will die.
Both Radford City Council and the county Board of Supervisors meet Monday and are expected to give preliminary approval to the agreement, as both the Montgomery authority and New River authority have already done. Each of the three New River authority governments must then hold public hearings on the agreement before giving final approval.
But Dublin Town Council did not even reach the first step at its meeting Thursday night. Councilman Dave Farmer, who represents Dublin on the authority, said he favored the agreement. Two other council members, Peggy Hemmings and Dr. David Stanley, were absent from the meeting. Alden Hankla was the only other member present.
A vote Thursday night could have killed the agreement or at least been a tie, if Hankla had supported it. Mayor Benny Keister, who would have had to break the tie, had already expressed misgivings about the agreement because Pulaski County's membership representation would be reduced from five to three members, two from the county and one from Dublin.
"I think we need our member simply because all this traffic comes through our town," Keister said, referring to the 12 to 15 daily truckloads of solid waste from Montgomery County, Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Virginia Tech that would be buried in a new 350-acre landfill in Pulaski County, south of Cloyds Mountain. "Otherwise, I'd have been willing to give up a seat on it."
Farmer moved that council postpone consideration of the matter until all its members could be present. Hankla seconded the motion, which passed 4-0.
Skeens said he had been ready to vote on the agreement itself. "If we wait six months, my vote's going to be the same," he said.
The agreement cannot wait six months. It is scheduled to go into effect next year, when the new landfill comes on line.
Pulaski County Supervisor Jerry White and Radford Mayor Thomas Starnes, who represented the New River authority in negotiations with the Montgomery authority, said there had been no thought of excluding Dublin from the process.
"I assure you I didn't volunteer to serve on this negotiating committee," White said, but he and Starnes were chosen to represent the authority, not their own jurisdictions.
"I don't remember a single vote in my eight years [on the authority] that has been locality versus locality," he said. "I really don't have any concerns about that being something that's going to put us at a disadvantage."
The agreement would provide for three representatives each from the Montgomery authority, Radford and Pulaski County. One of Pulaski County's representatives would be from Dublin, which is a charter member of the New River authority. The town of Pulaski is not a member but has its interests represented by the county members.
NRRA Executive Director Charles Maus told council that the agreement would allow the waste disposal cost to localities to drop an estimated 30 percent, saving Dublin some $750,000 over 50 years.
The Montgomery localities would pay 53 percent of disposal costs, amounting to $213,419, to cover expenses already handled by current New River authority members. Tipping fees would cover expenses after that.
Giles County has also expressed an interest in joining the authority, which would add about 130,000 tons of solid waste per year. The Montgomery localities would add about 110,000 tons to the current 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year now being buried.
Maus said the new landfill in Pulaski County, replacing one being closed at Ingles Mountain in Radford, could handle that tonnage for more than 100 years. He said disposal fees, which are being reduced from $57.50 to $50 per ton staring in 1997, would probably go up again if the agreement did not go through.
He said the agreement also promotes regional cooperation, as with a regional jail to be located in Dublin.
Skeens said protests by Dublin area citizens over that jail are one of the reasons he is edgy about the solid waste agreement. "We were reminded repeatedly that we kind of put the cart before the horse," he said, in approving the jail site before hearing public comment about it.
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