THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511160712
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Long : 186 lines
IT WAS A MONDAY afternoon. For Warren White, it was time to take out the garbage - not a task he's looked forward to in the 17 years he's lived in this county.
But recently, this unsavory chore has become a little less so, and the Carrollton man was happy.
``Are you Mr. Creef?'' White asked as he strode from his pickup truck, parked off Smith's Neck Road near Jones Creek Landing Mobile Home Park, and approached Public Works Director Lud Creef.
``I just wanted to tell you it really looks nice out here,'' White said, extending his hand in Creef's direction. ``You've done a great job.''
And as quickly as greasy kitchen drippings spread from a broken plastic bag, a wide grin spread across Creef's face.
``Well, I thought we were doing the right thing,'' Creef said, chuckling and pumping White's hand, ``but I didn't really expect compliments.''
White, like other residents in the county's northern end, used to haul mounds of household trash to dirty, green dumpsters each week. Now that same trash goes to a modern, new collection center at Jones Creek, the first such center in the county.
And soon all Isle of Wight residents will take their trash to similar centers when they open in Carrsville, Windsor, Rushmere, the courthouse and Camptown areas.
``The people here just love it,'' said Horace Taliaferro, one of two attendants working the Jones Creek center. ``They all say we've done a great job.''
The premiere collection center - open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, noon to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays - comes complete with a compactor for simple household trash and a depository for large, bulky items.
There's a container for ``white goods,'' appliances and such, and a spot for tires, which often are left to rot on the side of the road. And there's a recycling bin with slots just the right size for newspapers, magazines and various plastic and glass containers.
There is a place for everything, and everything in its place. It's as simple as 1-2-3 - and 4 and 5, Creef said, pointing from one deposit bin to the next.
And instructions on a large, easy-to-read sign on the front gate of the Jones Creek collection center are just that easy to follow. Designated areas for every kind of trash imaginable are numbered to make the process simple.
It goes like this: 1, see the attendant; if you don't have an Isle of Wight County decal on your vehicle, be ready to show identification that proves you are a county resident. Then, put the right trash into its proper place: 2, 3, 4 or 5.
The new refuse system is the result of years of looking at collection systems in other areas, Creef said. It is patterned after simlar systems in Currituck and Pasquotank counties in North Carolina.
Southampton County followed the example of those neighboring Carolina counties, and Isle of Wight has followed Southampton.
The process came about because the dumpsters had drawbacks. White recognized many of them.
It was always dirty, he said. And the sites, muddy during rainy weather, attracted all kinds of varmints, two-legged and four. Many times when his wife performed the trash-hauling task, she returned with garbage bags still in the truck, White said.
``There would be somebody or something up there that scared her off.''
And there were other problems, Creef said. The dumpsters, in out-of-the-way places because they were so unsightly, ended up with everything from dead animals to toxic waste.
``Right around the holidays has always been the worst time,'' Creef said. ``You can almost expect to pull up to a dumpster and find half of a gutted deer hanging over the side. Not a pretty sight.''
And they also were places where people left unwanted animals, like kittens and puppies, to fend for themselves.
One of the county's biggest trash headaches has been contractors bringing in loads of old shingles, broken timbers, crumbling wallboard and general construction waste.
If those contractors take their loads to landfills in their own areas, they have to pay a fee. Bringing it to Isle of Wight meant the refuse could be dumped any time of day or night, Creef said. And while it was a no-cost move for the contractors, the heavy loads added to the county's trash-disposal bill.
``Basically,'' Creef said, ``we've been paying for disposing of other localities' trash.''
It will continue to be that way for a while, until all the new collection sites are phased in and there are no dumpsters left, except in remote areas.
Jones Creek already is making a difference.
``I've turned a lot of Newport News and Williamsburg contractors down in the last two weeks,'' Taliaferro said. ``Some of them, they see me and make a U-turn at the gate.'' He laughed and thumped his chest.
One difference between the Isle of Wight and Southampton County systems is the attendants at Jones Creek. Creef would like to see all of the sites manned, but the County Board hasn't yet approved the cost of those salaries, about $15,000 a year for each one.
``Southampton has chosen not to have attendants,'' Creef said. ``They've had their problems already because of it. If one of these compactors plugs up, for example, it's a big job to unplug it.''
The Carrsville site, which will be unattended for now, should be open this week, Creef said.
``We're going to have a key club in Carrsville, try that for a while. I plan to give keys to the volunteer firemen maybe. I'll ask them to go by there, and if the trash needs smashing, they can use their keys.''
The dumpsters will be phased out as the collection sites open, beginning with those dumpsters most accessible to outsiders. The dumpster on Route 711 and Brewer's Neck Road is a prime example, Creef said, and it's one of the first due to go, in early December. Creef already has erected signs announcing the closing.
A lot of county residents will be glad to see the eyesores gone. But Sidney Jones, of Chesapeake, says the dumpsters have served a purpose as well: They are a kind of exchange center, where people deposit usable household goods outside the containers, and anybody who needs the things can take them.
And then there are the dumpster dippers, those hardy souls willing even to climb into the bins if they spot the right kind of treasure. Jones, armed with a long, wooden stick with a metal hook on one end, admitted he is one.
``It's a hobby,'' he said, laughing. ``I go all the way to Dinwiddie County. I'm retired. I don't sell any of the stuff I find. I clean it up, and I use it myself or give it away.''
From the day's collection in Isle of Wight, Jones had a ginger-jar lamp and a vacuum cleaner in his near-new Continental Mark IV.
``That's a beautiful lamp,'' he said, pointing at his find. ``That lamp would cost me $40. People throw away some real nice stuff. Good Lord, there ain't no end to it. Furniture, appliances, cookware, dishes, televisions. Most of the things are fine. Folks just don't want them no more.''
As Jones heard about the dumpsters in Isle of Wight County closing, he has turned his eye on Surry County.
And that is what officials there are worried about.
``We're aware of what Isle of Wight is doing, and we see it as more and more of a problem out here,'' said Charles Savedge, a member of the county Board of Supervisors who serves on a committee looking at the Surry trash problem.
``We certainly don't want to become the depository of all the trash in the Tidewater area. We know it's already coming in.''
Surry County has a problem near the Jamestown Ferry dock at Scotland Wharf similar to Isle of Wight's problem on Route 711, Savedge said. As convenient as the 711 site is to residents of Chesapeake, Portsmouth and the Peninsula, the dumpster in Surry is convenient to ferry commuters.
``You'd be amazed how many of them come over from James City County and bring their trash with them, across on the ferry,'' Savedge said. ``They do a lot of recycling in James City. If people don't want to mess with that, they just bring their trash over. As other localities tighten up, our problem will be compounded.''
Surry probably will go to a system similar to Isle of Wight's, Savedge said. A cost projection is due to be presented to the board soon. He said he and other supervisors know they've got to make a move.
Creef is glad Isle of Wight County already has done it.
``We can no longer control the dumpsters,'' he said. ``They no longer apply to our volume.''
Jones Creek and Carrsville will be the only two raised-hill sites. Others will be ground level because they are less expensive to build, Creef said. The county hasn't yet come up with a cost estimate for full implementation, but Creef said he's certain the collection sites will be less expensive than door-to-door collection.
Still, the new collection sites could produce problems of their own. The county supervisors have discussed the possibility of road-side dumping increasing as the dumpsters disappear, Creef said.
``I've told them that I think we just have to punish the ones we catch doing it, make an example of them. If they want to play in trash, give them to me for community service. I'll let them play in trash.''
With cooperation from the county's residents, he said, he feels that the problems eventually will be worked out, that most of the dumpsters will be gone - and the county will be a better place to live. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
DUMPING THE DUMPSTERS
[Color photo]
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Horace White throws out bags of trash from the back of his pickup
truck.
Signs alert residents that dumpsters are closing.
Circled sites indicate eight possible centers for collection such as
the one at Jones Creek Landing.
Warren White detested the dumpsters sites, which were muddy during
rainy weather and attracted all kinds of varmints, two-legged and
four.
Public Woeks Director Lud Creef, right, and Horace Taliaferro, one
of two attendants working the Jones Creek center, sort through a
trailer where appliances are dumped.
by CNB