Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991 TAG: 9103280407
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve McGraw said Wednesday that the county is willing to go along with a compromise suggested by City Manager Robert Herbert at a private meeting last Friday.
Under that compromise, the city would pay the same dumping fee as the county.
But because the landfill will be in the county, the county would be allowed to keep the extra money brought in by the higher dumping fee paid by private haulers.
Private haulers now pay $4 a ton more than local governments do to dump garbage at the regional landfill in Mount Pleasant. There would be a similar policy at the Smith Gap landfill.
Roanoke County should be compensated in some way for having a landfill, McGraw said. But the city wouldn't agree to pay a higher dumping fee than the county.
The supervisors discussed Herbert's proposal in an executive session during Tuesday's meeting.
The city and the county still are trying to reach agreement on other issues:
How will the localities be represented on the authority that will own and operate the new landfill? The county wants always to have a majority of seats on the authority, just as the city does on the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission.
How will localities that use the landfill share its financial risks? For example, what would happen if the revenue from dumping fees wasn't sufficient to repay the bonds sold to finance construction?
How will the county be reimbursed for the $1.5 million it already has spent on engineering costs and the purchase of land?
In the discussions, the county tried to link an agreement on the landfill with renegotiation of the agreement under which the county purchases water from the city. That has been a sore spot for years for the county, because it has to pay a 25 percent surcharge.
But the city refused to renegotiate the water agreement, McGraw said. "If I had a deal that good, I wouldn't want to renegotiate it, either."
Herbert and Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor met with McGraw and County Administrator Elmer Hodge for about two hours Friday.
The Smith Gap landfill is scheduled to open early in 1993.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 29, 1991\ Correction
A story in Thursday's morning edition incorrectly reported details of an agreement between Roanoke and Roanoke County on fees at the new regional landfill.
Private haulers will be charged a higher dumping fee than the localities that are on the authority that will own and operate the landfill. And because the landfill will be in Roanoke County, the county also will be allowed to charge a "host locality fee." Roanoke also wants the option to charge a host locality fee, because a garbage transfer station will be built in the city.
Only private haulers, and localities that aren't on the landfill authority, will be charged the host locality fee.
Memo: Correction