Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 1990 TAG: 9004040106
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN SPECIAL SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG - LENGTH: Medium
The county Board of Supervisors decided last week to charge a $15-per-ton tipping fee for trash dumped at the the Mid-County Landfill near the U.S. 460 corridor.
The dumping fee would take effect July 1.
Blacksburg Town Manager Ron Secrist told Council at a budget work session Monday that the town will have to increase residential garbage bills to pay the tipping fee in addition to a cost increase to start the curb-side recycling program.
Garbage fees are collected every two months with a $10.22 charge attached to residential water bills.
To pay the new dumping fee to the county, Secrist said the town's preliminary estimate is that a monthly charge of $1.25 would have to be added to each household's garbage collection bill.
If the town goes ahead with a recycling program, residents would also have to be charged $2.12 per month to help pay for that service, which will include collection bins provided by the town.
Using these figures, the $5.11 monthly cost for garbage collection would increase to $8.48. This means that residents would see their bi-monthly water and garbage bill increase by $6.74 if Council approves the recycling program when it adopts the town budget later this month.
A story in Friday's Roanoke Times & World-News incorrectly stated that town residents would see their monthly $5.11 garbage bill more than double if the proposed recycling program is added to the county's landfill fee.
Secrist outlined another option that would have residents pay a one-time $10 fee to pay for their individual recycling bins. That would reduce the monthly recycling cost to $1.28 per household.
The town manager said Council could consider putting off the recycling program for a year, but he recommended against that because the county's dumping fees per ton are expected to increase in 1992 and 1993 to $26 and $29.
He said delaying the recycling program would mean that the town was no closer to meeting a state mandate that localities recycle 25 percent of their trash by 1995.
While the tipping fees may increase over the years, Secrist said the town could expect to see the recycling costs decrease as the collection bins are paid for. And recycling would mean a decrease in the number of tons of trash that the town sends to the landfill.
Councilman Waldron Kerns said he favored starting the recycling effort in the next fiscal year as planned, but only after a major effort by the town to educate residents on the program and the costs involved. Because many town residents may be out of town over the summer, the council members suggested that the recycling program start in September. Councilwoman Joyce Lewis said she favored providing the bins to the residents instead of charging the $10 one-time fee.
Town Council will meet Tuesday for its regular session. It will have a work session April 17.
by CNB