With not much more to say, the Town Council of Luray voted unanimously to deny Shenandoah Waste Services permission to locate in the industrial park. (See the thread "What's the Deal?")
Although some council members visited a similar facility and were disappointed, SWS maintains that the facility they visited was not as similar as they believed, and did not represent the operations that SWS is proposing.
The next move is up to the county now. SWS is currently operating in the county, and it would take a change to the zoning ordinance -- something in process in varying degrees anyway in the county -- to let it continue to operate in its current location.
Both EMCO and the DEQ are supportive of this operation.
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
What's the Deal?
The Salyards Business. What's the Deal?
Is this good for Page County or is it bad? What do we know about it?
Email Research@PageCountyWatch.org and let us know. The Town Council votes Tuesday night. Are they going to let a new business in, and bring jobs? Or are they going to chase it away?
Why or why not? Post what you know.
Jody sent this information in. I have signed his online petition. The link is here for anyone else who wants to. Also, the phone numbers of the town council members are here so you can call them and express your opinion.
Dear Alice,
Thank you so much for the opportunity to express our views this morning on you show. Here is some basic information about our proposed facility.
Shenandoah Waste Services, llc is requesting a special use permit to operate a Materials Recovery Center in the Town of Luray, Virginia, on the north side of Stoney Brook Lane, south of U.S. Route 211, and north of the present location of the EMCO Enterprises manufacturing facility. This project will create 80 new jobs paying over $30,000 per year for the people of Page County, help protect the 280 jobs at Emco, and place Page County on the forefront of environmental responsibility. The proposed facility will not operate as a transfer station, will comply with all state and federal environmental laws, and lengthen the life of our current landfill. This facility will attract other industry to the County of Page creating future Job growth so that the people of Page County are not forced to commute outside the county for employment. Our main concentration is to help manufacturing facilities obtain waste free status by recycling there cardboard, wood, ferrous and nonferrous metals, plastics, drywall, and shingles. all operations will be indoors, there will be no processing of garbage, hazardous waste or infectious waste. The plant will help local builders be able to achieve green building credits. We urge all of the constituents of the Town of Luray and the County of Page to contact the staff , mayor, and members of the town council of Luray to express you support the Council will vote on this request Tuesday October the 9th.
Also please sign our online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/sws10909/petition.html
Mayor of the Town of Luray
Ralph H. Dean 540-743-3208
Luray Town Council
Barry Presgraves 540-743-5326
William Menefee 540-743-7721
Lonnie Arrington 540-743-2556
Earl L. “Rock” Racer 540-743-5439
Nancy Lee Shifflett 540-743-6709
Leroy Lancaster 540-743-5072
Town Planner
Ligon Webb 540-743-5511
Town Manager
Rick Black 540-743-5511
Is this good for Page County or is it bad? What do we know about it?
Email Research@PageCountyWatch.org and let us know. The Town Council votes Tuesday night. Are they going to let a new business in, and bring jobs? Or are they going to chase it away?
Why or why not? Post what you know.
Jody sent this information in. I have signed his online petition. The link is here for anyone else who wants to. Also, the phone numbers of the town council members are here so you can call them and express your opinion.
Dear Alice,
Thank you so much for the opportunity to express our views this morning on you show. Here is some basic information about our proposed facility.
Shenandoah Waste Services, llc is requesting a special use permit to operate a Materials Recovery Center in the Town of Luray, Virginia, on the north side of Stoney Brook Lane, south of U.S. Route 211, and north of the present location of the EMCO Enterprises manufacturing facility. This project will create 80 new jobs paying over $30,000 per year for the people of Page County, help protect the 280 jobs at Emco, and place Page County on the forefront of environmental responsibility. The proposed facility will not operate as a transfer station, will comply with all state and federal environmental laws, and lengthen the life of our current landfill. This facility will attract other industry to the County of Page creating future Job growth so that the people of Page County are not forced to commute outside the county for employment. Our main concentration is to help manufacturing facilities obtain waste free status by recycling there cardboard, wood, ferrous and nonferrous metals, plastics, drywall, and shingles. all operations will be indoors, there will be no processing of garbage, hazardous waste or infectious waste. The plant will help local builders be able to achieve green building credits. We urge all of the constituents of the Town of Luray and the County of Page to contact the staff , mayor, and members of the town council of Luray to express you support the Council will vote on this request Tuesday October the 9th.
Also please sign our online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/sws10909/petition.html
Mayor of the Town of Luray
Ralph H. Dean 540-743-3208
Luray Town Council
Barry Presgraves 540-743-5326
William Menefee 540-743-7721
Lonnie Arrington 540-743-2556
Earl L. “Rock” Racer 540-743-5439
Nancy Lee Shifflett 540-743-6709
Leroy Lancaster 540-743-5072
Town Planner
Ligon Webb 540-743-5511
Town Manager
Rick Black 540-743-5511
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Full Speed Ahead
Planning Commission notes from Sept 25
Quoted from my notes of the Board of Supervisors meeting on September 18:
“The contract for the consultant to do the Land Use Map was shown. Kevin Henry wanted them to approve the money ($43,000) and the contract (pure time and travel, no specified deliverables, just send the money based on timecards) but Tommy LaFrance said something on the order of (paraphrased and caricaturized) “why do we need to pay a consultant to borrow our watch and tell us what time it is?” And Gerald Cubbage said why do we need some outsider to tell us where to put the bubbles on the bubble map, and Carol Lee said, well, maybe we could just get a little bit of help, not this much, and Charlie Hoke said, why don’t we go talk to the Planning Commission about this again and John Rust was absent. So they tabled it, pending talking to the Planning Commission about it some more. Tommy and Gerald thought Kevin Henry was up to the job, and the job really entails input from the towns and the citizens, so what does that have to do with a consultant. Kevin said, but there’s only one of me, so it’s going to take a long time.”
I thought that meant they didn’t want to spend the consultant money on the easy part, the part which just entails facilitating meetings to find out how the citizens want the county to look. That would mean the money would still be there after the Land Use Map was developed, when they might need real expertise to develop zoning ordinances. The danger in spending the money now, on the meeting facilitation, at $43,000 for 266 hours of time, is that then, when the money is all gone, and there still is no Land Use Map because the consultants held the meetings, but citizens didn’t attend, and so consensus was not built, the Land Use Map we spent $43,000 for will still not be accepted by the community, and the money will have been spent for no good reason. Building consensus within the community is time consuming and long. You can’t just hold a meeting, to which nobody comes, and then declare that you’ve fulfilled your obligation to hold a meeting, and proceed without consensus or community understanding.
The thing about our citizens is that they won’t figure out what’s going on until this is way down the road, and somebody tells them their land is being condemned because maybe a sinkhole is under it, and now it has to be a park. THEN they want to come out with picket signs, even though this has been brewing for years, under the radar, where nobody’s paying attention to it. So the point of not hiring the consultant for the Land Use Map is just that it’s a Time and Materials contract, with no deliverables, except the Timecards. Nothing to showing up for a meeting, conducting it whether anybody attends or not, and sending a bill. So the consensus building will be particularly hard, especially because there was no citizen involvement in developing the Comprehensive Plan that was just approved, so you are not starting with agreement that the goals stated there are in the community’s best interest in the first place. You won't even be able to get the bubbles placed on the bubble map without that.
The consultants part in building that consensus, at between $150 and $300 an hour, could maybe be cut down to just a little advice, rather than to spending all that was budgeted on this part. Perhaps the consultant could just spend a week with Mr. Henry, getting him ready to run these consensus building meetings, instead of paying the consultant to run them, because in Page County, these meetings aren't going to "take" the first time. They'll need a rerun. Or maybe three or four reruns.
At the Planning Commission meeting September 25, though, nobody from the Board was there to talk about the reasons why they wanted to proceed on the Land Use Map without a consultant. Nobody from the Planning Commission had been briefed on their reasons. So the Planning Commission just had a short discussion about it, and then re-requested or reaffirmed that they wanted to hire a consultant. They didn’t have anyone to explain to them why this contract was not immediately approved. When the Board, ie Charlie Hoke, is about to turn something down, but then Charlie pipes up with, "Let's talk to the Planning Commission about it first," we, as citizens, think that means they are actually going to talk to the Planning Commission, not just let the Planning Commission go off and vote again without any discussion.
Meanwhile, the Water Quality Advisory committee has issued a report on cleaning up the river. It says there is fecal cloriform (from warm blooded mammals) in 22% of our wells. And some other kind of bacteria in 44%.
I haven’t read that report yet, but I hope it says that comes from the cows in the river instead of saying it comes from people. All the people I know have health department approved septic systems. I wonder if there are people living on the river who don’t have septic systems. I will get a copy of the report and tell you.
Or, you can call 743-4142 and get your own copy, and tell me what you think.
Also, there was more talk about Karst and how the runoff endangers wells and causes sinkholes.
I haven’t seen any news reports about sinkholes, people falling in them or cars and houses being swallowed up. I guess that’s something that would happen if we got development here. If anybody wants to post any reports about sinkholes in the county, I’d be happy to post it. Or just hit the comments button.
There was also talk about a consultant who is in the process of writing a proffer model for if developers come here. One part of the proffer model is if you allow “age-restricted” communities. Apparently, with the Baby Boomers retiring, that is a popular model, because when you get to be a grandparent, you like everybody who lives around you to just have their grandchildren visit, not live next door to you. The problem with these “55 and over only” communities is that the developer doesn’t have to pay any “proffers” for schools, and that’s why developers like them. But they potentially strain the hospitals and ambulances, if you get too many of them. Also, they can be a problem for a person who buys a house in one of these communities, and then later, events overtake them and maybe a grandchild needs to come to live with grandpa and grandma because of some problem, and then guess what? Grandpa and Grandma either have to move, or they have to refuse to take the child in. Of course, this is planning ahead, for that sunshiny day when a developer decides it would be worth his while to build houses here. That’s what the whole Planning Commission is about. Planning ahead for the future.
To quote Commissioner Charles Newton, “We don’t want to do something now that causes a problem that is very expensive to fix in fifty years.”
So this is big, long range planning. With amazing foresight.
Wish you’d been there.
Alice
I know everybody’s too busy gossiping about the various Sheriff candidates to bother paying attention to this, but I think someday you’ll be sorry you didn’t watch what’s going on here.
Quoted from my notes of the Board of Supervisors meeting on September 18:
“The contract for the consultant to do the Land Use Map was shown. Kevin Henry wanted them to approve the money ($43,000) and the contract (pure time and travel, no specified deliverables, just send the money based on timecards) but Tommy LaFrance said something on the order of (paraphrased and caricaturized) “why do we need to pay a consultant to borrow our watch and tell us what time it is?” And Gerald Cubbage said why do we need some outsider to tell us where to put the bubbles on the bubble map, and Carol Lee said, well, maybe we could just get a little bit of help, not this much, and Charlie Hoke said, why don’t we go talk to the Planning Commission about this again and John Rust was absent. So they tabled it, pending talking to the Planning Commission about it some more. Tommy and Gerald thought Kevin Henry was up to the job, and the job really entails input from the towns and the citizens, so what does that have to do with a consultant. Kevin said, but there’s only one of me, so it’s going to take a long time.”
I thought that meant they didn’t want to spend the consultant money on the easy part, the part which just entails facilitating meetings to find out how the citizens want the county to look. That would mean the money would still be there after the Land Use Map was developed, when they might need real expertise to develop zoning ordinances. The danger in spending the money now, on the meeting facilitation, at $43,000 for 266 hours of time, is that then, when the money is all gone, and there still is no Land Use Map because the consultants held the meetings, but citizens didn’t attend, and so consensus was not built, the Land Use Map we spent $43,000 for will still not be accepted by the community, and the money will have been spent for no good reason. Building consensus within the community is time consuming and long. You can’t just hold a meeting, to which nobody comes, and then declare that you’ve fulfilled your obligation to hold a meeting, and proceed without consensus or community understanding.
The thing about our citizens is that they won’t figure out what’s going on until this is way down the road, and somebody tells them their land is being condemned because maybe a sinkhole is under it, and now it has to be a park. THEN they want to come out with picket signs, even though this has been brewing for years, under the radar, where nobody’s paying attention to it. So the point of not hiring the consultant for the Land Use Map is just that it’s a Time and Materials contract, with no deliverables, except the Timecards. Nothing to showing up for a meeting, conducting it whether anybody attends or not, and sending a bill. So the consensus building will be particularly hard, especially because there was no citizen involvement in developing the Comprehensive Plan that was just approved, so you are not starting with agreement that the goals stated there are in the community’s best interest in the first place. You won't even be able to get the bubbles placed on the bubble map without that.
The consultants part in building that consensus, at between $150 and $300 an hour, could maybe be cut down to just a little advice, rather than to spending all that was budgeted on this part. Perhaps the consultant could just spend a week with Mr. Henry, getting him ready to run these consensus building meetings, instead of paying the consultant to run them, because in Page County, these meetings aren't going to "take" the first time. They'll need a rerun. Or maybe three or four reruns.
At the Planning Commission meeting September 25, though, nobody from the Board was there to talk about the reasons why they wanted to proceed on the Land Use Map without a consultant. Nobody from the Planning Commission had been briefed on their reasons. So the Planning Commission just had a short discussion about it, and then re-requested or reaffirmed that they wanted to hire a consultant. They didn’t have anyone to explain to them why this contract was not immediately approved. When the Board, ie Charlie Hoke, is about to turn something down, but then Charlie pipes up with, "Let's talk to the Planning Commission about it first," we, as citizens, think that means they are actually going to talk to the Planning Commission, not just let the Planning Commission go off and vote again without any discussion.
Meanwhile, the Water Quality Advisory committee has issued a report on cleaning up the river. It says there is fecal cloriform (from warm blooded mammals) in 22% of our wells. And some other kind of bacteria in 44%.
I haven’t read that report yet, but I hope it says that comes from the cows in the river instead of saying it comes from people. All the people I know have health department approved septic systems. I wonder if there are people living on the river who don’t have septic systems. I will get a copy of the report and tell you.
Or, you can call 743-4142 and get your own copy, and tell me what you think.
Also, there was more talk about Karst and how the runoff endangers wells and causes sinkholes.
I haven’t seen any news reports about sinkholes, people falling in them or cars and houses being swallowed up. I guess that’s something that would happen if we got development here. If anybody wants to post any reports about sinkholes in the county, I’d be happy to post it. Or just hit the comments button.
There was also talk about a consultant who is in the process of writing a proffer model for if developers come here. One part of the proffer model is if you allow “age-restricted” communities. Apparently, with the Baby Boomers retiring, that is a popular model, because when you get to be a grandparent, you like everybody who lives around you to just have their grandchildren visit, not live next door to you. The problem with these “55 and over only” communities is that the developer doesn’t have to pay any “proffers” for schools, and that’s why developers like them. But they potentially strain the hospitals and ambulances, if you get too many of them. Also, they can be a problem for a person who buys a house in one of these communities, and then later, events overtake them and maybe a grandchild needs to come to live with grandpa and grandma because of some problem, and then guess what? Grandpa and Grandma either have to move, or they have to refuse to take the child in. Of course, this is planning ahead, for that sunshiny day when a developer decides it would be worth his while to build houses here. That’s what the whole Planning Commission is about. Planning ahead for the future.
To quote Commissioner Charles Newton, “We don’t want to do something now that causes a problem that is very expensive to fix in fifty years.”
So this is big, long range planning. With amazing foresight.
Wish you’d been there.
Alice
I know everybody’s too busy gossiping about the various Sheriff candidates to bother paying attention to this, but I think someday you’ll be sorry you didn’t watch what’s going on here.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Quiet Time
It's a quiet time at the Board of Supervisors. The big controversy over the flood plain ordinance is over. The Comprehensive Plan is what it is, and the amendments made satisfied the worst objections. The County Attorney missed out on his big chance to get extra extra rich defending the county over the flood plain lawsuits. And Charlie Hoke figured out what he could say that would make him sound like he was in tune with the will of the People.
At the end of the last Board meeting, Supervisor Hoke introduced a proposal to deny county services to illegal immigrants. Lee McWhorter, who makes it his function to provide the comic relief at these meetings, suggested that we should check to see if we have any illegal immigrants before we waste the money paying the county attorney to write something up. Tommy LaFrance said we do, because the school board was forced to hire Spanish tutors for them last year. (I don't think that's exactly what he said, remember I'm just a citizen taking notes, and I write down things as I hear them, which is not necessarily exact. My reports are not minutes of the meetings.)
Lee pointed out that other counties who have done this have ended up paying lawyer money to defend themselves over it, and it would be a shame to spend our money that way if it's not really much of a problem.
The meeting wasn't really about this issue -- it was about the dogs at Brenda Jolly's place and about the passing of the Comprehensive Plan more. There were a lot of people there, which was a very good thing. But, although this was just a short comment at the very end, it got a big front page headline in the Page News.
Why? Because most probably, it's a very popular proposal. A lot of people will agree with it, and not many will oppose it. So Charlie Hoke, who made his constituents so angry at the district meeting over the Comprehensive Plan in his district, when he opposed the changes to the Comprehensive Plan about the flood plain -- made them so angry there was murmuring and aggravation so intense that some people started looking up the rules for how to impeach a Supervisor --- pulls himself out of the hot seat by:
1. voting unanimously with the rest of the Board FOR the changes to the Comprehensive Plan, and
2. introducing this illegal immigrants proposal which gets him front page news AND HIS PICTURE in the paper. Although the picture doesn't really look like him. Where's the little beard?
In any case, a lot of people will think "Charlie Hoke -- isn't he the guy who introduced that legislation for the county against illegal immigrants?" and will feel kindly toward him.
Honestly, I can't even think of an argument FOR providing county services to illegal immigrants. I think most people, if you tell them we are hiring special tutors in the schools and providing emergency services to people who came here illegally would say --- "Yo, Not with MY tax dollars, I hope".
I think Charlie came up with a winner, in terms of introducing something that most people will agree with. Although I surely hope we don't have to get involved with lawsuits over it.
Alice
At the end of the last Board meeting, Supervisor Hoke introduced a proposal to deny county services to illegal immigrants. Lee McWhorter, who makes it his function to provide the comic relief at these meetings, suggested that we should check to see if we have any illegal immigrants before we waste the money paying the county attorney to write something up. Tommy LaFrance said we do, because the school board was forced to hire Spanish tutors for them last year. (I don't think that's exactly what he said, remember I'm just a citizen taking notes, and I write down things as I hear them, which is not necessarily exact. My reports are not minutes of the meetings.)
Lee pointed out that other counties who have done this have ended up paying lawyer money to defend themselves over it, and it would be a shame to spend our money that way if it's not really much of a problem.
The meeting wasn't really about this issue -- it was about the dogs at Brenda Jolly's place and about the passing of the Comprehensive Plan more. There were a lot of people there, which was a very good thing. But, although this was just a short comment at the very end, it got a big front page headline in the Page News.
Why? Because most probably, it's a very popular proposal. A lot of people will agree with it, and not many will oppose it. So Charlie Hoke, who made his constituents so angry at the district meeting over the Comprehensive Plan in his district, when he opposed the changes to the Comprehensive Plan about the flood plain -- made them so angry there was murmuring and aggravation so intense that some people started looking up the rules for how to impeach a Supervisor --- pulls himself out of the hot seat by:
1. voting unanimously with the rest of the Board FOR the changes to the Comprehensive Plan, and
2. introducing this illegal immigrants proposal which gets him front page news AND HIS PICTURE in the paper. Although the picture doesn't really look like him. Where's the little beard?
In any case, a lot of people will think "Charlie Hoke -- isn't he the guy who introduced that legislation for the county against illegal immigrants?" and will feel kindly toward him.
Honestly, I can't even think of an argument FOR providing county services to illegal immigrants. I think most people, if you tell them we are hiring special tutors in the schools and providing emergency services to people who came here illegally would say --- "Yo, Not with MY tax dollars, I hope".
I think Charlie came up with a winner, in terms of introducing something that most people will agree with. Although I surely hope we don't have to get involved with lawsuits over it.
Alice
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Green Stuff
This thread is for posts that are about positive actions we can take to help the environment. What organic farming measures do we have in the county? What construction has been done in a green way? What grocery stores are offering naturally grown products? Lots of people here care about the environment, and many are taking actions to make their personal lives considerate of sustainable practices. I know there are small farms here that offer eggs from free range chickens, baskets of produce in a coop way, and hormone-free, antibiotic free beef. Post any information you have about places to buy organic food (not WalMart organic -- real organic, the word's been co-opted). If you know of anyone who has used energy-efficient practices in building, tell us about it. Post about positive actions people have taken in this area. Post about incentives that are offered for people to do these things.
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