Supervisors give okay to Smyth, Patrick counties’ temporary use of Cloyd’s Mountain landfill
By MIKE WILLIAMS
The Patriot
The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors gave its blessing last Monday night (Nov. 21) to the New River Resource Authority to temporarily allow both Smyth County and Patrick County to dispose trash at the Cloyd Mountain landfill.
“Here in Pulaski County, we are blessed,” began Draper Supervisor Dirk Compton as he explained the garbage situation Smyth and Patrick counties find themselves in and their need to make use of the local landfill.
Compton represents Pulaski County on the NRRA board.
“We have a regional landfill here, and as a member of the NRRA, when a ton of trash crosses the scale up there (Cloyd Mountain landfill) we make $24. But if you’re not a member, you’re paying $34. So, it’s a blessing for us because we’re able to save money and it will keep our trash rates lower,” Compton explained.
Currently, Smyth County transports its garbage to the Bristol landfill, which is beset with problems – most notably intense odors that have even brought about citizen protests at the facility. Elected representatives serving the Bristol area are working toward obtaining state and possibly even federal assistance in resolving issues at the landfill, which one representative said is headed toward closure “sooner rather than later.”
Compton said Smyth County is asking to join the NRRA as a non-member jurisdiction and would pay a $34 per ton rate to dispose of garbage at the Cloyd Mountain facility.
Compton said the county needs to consider the request because the NRRA is losing Roanoke County and city at the moment “because they’re going in a different direction.”
“We need to keep our trash numbers up in order to keep our trash prices down for our citizens,” Compton said.
He said Patrick County is also requesting to come to Cloyd Mountain. They currently haul their trash to Amelia County.
“So that shows you what a blessing we have to be able to pop up the road and save our drivers, save our vehicles and our diesel fuel,” Compton said.
He noted the arrangement with Smyth and Patrick amounts to a temporary emergency disposal agreement that can be ended anytime if it becomes unfavorable to the NRRA.
He offered a motion to approve the resolution allowing Smyth and Patrick’s use of the landfill, and the resolution was approved unanimously.
The NRRA’s governing board had earlier approved the resolution, however, it needs to be approved by each of the authority’s member jurisdictions individually.
New Board Members
Monday’s meeting of the supervisors was unusually short – only about 45 minutes long – and marked the first for new supervisors Chris Stafford (Cloyd District) and Mike Mooney (Massie District).
Three supervisors were named to positions on other local boards as the Board of Supervisors’ representatives. Those include Mooney on the county’s Planning Commission, Stafford on the Fairlawn Sewer Authority Board and Jeff Reeves (Robinson District) on the Lead Through Service Application Screening Committee.
Sweet Absent
Monday’s meeting marked a rare occurrence in which County Administrator Jonathan Sweet was not in attendance. Assistant County Administrator Anthony Akers noted Sweet was under the weather and could not attend. He noted that the meeting was only the third Sweet had missed in over 20 years of working in county administration.
Taxes Due
Pulaski County Treasurer Melinda Worrell said that county real estate taxes are due Dec. 5.
She noted the town on Nov. 30 is closing Main Street downtown (between Jefferson Avenue and Washington Avenue) for its water line project and said taxpayers “will have to walk a pretty good distance to get to our office.”