Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 7, 1994 TAG: 9412070110
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The unique meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on the third floor of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg.
The idea is to pull the county, Tech, Blacksburg and Christiansburg into one new entity - to be called the Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority - that will be responsible for disposing of trash in Montgomery.
That achieved, the next step will be having the Montgomery trash authority join the existing New River Resource Authority in its plans to open a new landfill in Pulaski County later this decade.
The proposed new authority is "one of the most important things that this county has done in the last 20 years," said Larry Linkous, Montgomery Board of Supervisors chairman.
That's because the authority could be a tangible example of regional cooperation that could save money for everyone involved, Linkous said.
"I hope this goes forward," he said. "I think everyone feels like I do that you have to think regionally."
Under the proposal, the new authority would take control of Montgomery's existing Mid-County Landfill by July. The Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority itself would be controlled by a five-member board including Adele Schirmer, Blacksburg's director of planning and engineering; John Lemley, Christiansburg's town manager; Montgomery Supervisor Joe Gorman; and Spencer Hall, Tech's assistant vice president for facilities. Those four members would appoint a fifth member.
Montgomery's current landfill, located northeast of the Marketplace shopping center and New River Valley Mall, is self-supporting through the fees charged to dump trash. But it is expected to run out of space later this decade.
The county's long-term trash solution is the proposed Cloyds Mountain landfill in Pulaski. The New River Resource Authority operates the Ingles Mountain landfill in Radford, but is in the process of condemning property for the new facility. The resource authority is made up of the governments of Radford, Pulaski County, and the towns of Dublin and Pulaski.
Before the Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority can join the New River authority, the General Assembly will have to modify state law that restricts one authority from joining another. Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, and Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, who represent portions of Montgomery, have both said they don't anticipate major problems getting that change approved this winter.
by CNB