Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990 TAG: 9004110131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE - LENGTH: Medium
The tipping fee schedule recommended by County Administrator Billy R. Branson was $15 per cubic yard of delivered trash in regular collection trucks, $5 per pickup truck, $15 for one-axle trucks and $25 for dual-axle trucks. If those fees had been approved Tuesday, they would have been effective May 1.
Jerry Cox, representing Kingston-Warren Corp., said the Wytheville plant was adding two production lines by July, which would result in enough refuse to raise its disposal costs under the $15 per cubic yard rate to $200,000 a year.
Cox said the plant had added more than 70 employees in the last 1 1/2 months and that, while some trash disposal fees were reasonable, the proposed rate would discourage local industry.
Ron Malloy, representing C&M Carting Co. which hauls waste in six counties, said that so far only Pulaski County is charging a disposal fee. Pulaski County raised its rate from $20 to $30 per ton this year, he said, with one ton being roughly equal to 4.5 cubic yards of compacted waste.
"We're going to have to start charging people for the things that we do, or we're going to have to raise taxes more than 12 cents," Branson said. He and Malloy, along with board Chairman Bobby Williams and Supervisor Andy Kegley, will study the matter further and bring a recommendation to the full board.
Wythe charges Bland County $11 per cubic yard to bury its waste, and Branson said it would be hard to charge less for private users. Bland had been paying as much as $22 per cubic yard at a private landfill, he said.
Landfill costs will be going up faster due to new state requirements for operating them and for recycling some of the waste rather than burying it. Branson had recommended basing the fee on cubic yards rather than tonnage because the county has no scales for weighing trash now.
The board did approve a new schedule of building permit fees, effective May 1: homes, industrial and commercial buildings, now at 6 cents per square foot, and mobile homes, now 4 cents, will all go to 16 cents.
In other business, the board:
Received from state Sen. Daniel Bird, D-Wytheville, a copy of a joint resolution from the General Assembly congratulating Wythe County on its bicentennial this year.
Ratified the awarding of nearly $2.5 million in public school bonds to finance a construction project at Fort Chiswell High School.
Set a public hearing for its next meeting May 8 on a proposed consumer utility tax ordinance.
Agreed to participate in a study of a regional jail. Bland County agreed to the study last month, and Carroll County is to consider it Wednesday.
Authorized Branson to write Gov. Douglas Wilder and other state officials to complain about a reduction in state mileage reimbursements for public vehicles, from 24 cents to 16 cents per mile, approved by the 1990 legislature. Branson said rural counties such as Wythe, spread over 475 square miles, cannot economically operate vehicles with the reduction.
by CNB