ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997 TAG: 9703100020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER THE ROANOKE TIMES
With a regional trash authority in limbo, Montgomery will look for other landfills that would like to talk trash with the county.
The Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority is looking at an alternate trash disposal method because plans for it to join the New River Resource Authority remain stalled.
The Montgomery board on Thursday hired Olver Inc., a Blacksburg-based engineering firm, to design a transfer station, which would consolidate trash from the county, Virginia Tech and the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg, for hauling to a landfill. The transfer station would have been needed even if the Montgomery group had joined in the regional New River authority, which has a new landfill coming on line in Pulaski County.
But the board also directed Randall Bowling, its executive director, to prepare a proposal for bids for hauling the trash from the transfer station and disposing of it in a landfill. Bowling said there were several privately owned landfills, and possibly some public ones as well, in Virginia and surrounding states that would be interested in handling the county's trash.
The authority decided that it needed a backup plan for when its landfill is used up by mid-1998, in case the proposal to join the New River authority goes nowhere.
The New River Resource Authority comprises Pulaski County, the city of Radford and town of Dublin. The governing bodies for all three jurisdictions would have to give their approval for Montgomery to join.
Radford City Council has given its approval. The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors has held a public hearing on the plan but taken no action. Some Dublin Town Council members are opposed to the idea, and the matter has not been on its agenda for a month.
The idea of bringing the Montgomery authority into the New River authority stemmed from negotiations lasting about a year. Radford Mayor Thomas Starnes and Pulaski Supervisor Jerry White represented the authority. Dublin Councilmen Benny Skeens and Sam Gregory have both said they oppose the merger in part because Dublin was not represented on the negotiating team.
Other concerns have included a change in representation on the combined authorities. Montgomery, Radford and Pulaski County would each have three representatives, with a Dublin appointee being one of Pulaski's three.
Currently, Pulaski County and Dublin have three representatives to Radford's two. Opponents of the merger want Pulaski County to keep control of the board because the new landfill will be located in the county.
Proponents of the agreement say solid waste from outside the New River Valley, which is a concern, could be vetoed by any jurisdiction.
Other advantages of the merger would be an estimated 30 percent reduction per ton in disposal costs with the larger service area, a bigger and more economical base for recycling and composting, and reducing the variability of the waste stream.
The town of Pulaski, while not a separate member like Dublin, is also represented through the Pulaski County authority members. Pulaski Town Council has also expressed its misgivings about equalizing board membership with three members each.
The current New River authority landfill in Radford will soon be replaced by the new site on Cloyds Mountain in Pulaski County.
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