Many times even the best-laid plans go up in smoke — but that’s exactly what one Mount Airy official hopes will occur regarding a sanitation-related proposal he has floated.
The city government is now paying Surry County about $40,000 per year to dump brush at the county landfill south of town after it is collected from Mount Airy residences.
Disposing of such waste has been an ongoing concern among municipal officials, surrounding both cost and logistical issues involving the use of a grapple truck to gather items such as tree limbs and other yard waste as a special service to citizens. Huge piles of cut trees and shrubbery sometimes are left along local streets, which are collected by workers manning the truck and hauled away.
A possible improvement in that process emerged on March 23 during a city government planning retreat to address budgetary and other long-range matters. This included department heads discussing their operations along with related facility, personnel and other needs.
As Public Works Director Mitch Williams was presenting information about his realm of responsibility, which includes trash collection, he relayed a suggestion by new City Manager Stan Farmer, who assumed that post on Jan. 31.
“Have you ever thought about burning your brush?” Williams said he was asked by Farmer as he was making the rounds of public works facilities with the manager.
“That’s one of the things we’re looking at as a cost-saving measure,” Farmer explained during the retreat.
Rather than making regular trips to the county landfill and racking up thousands of dollars in fees along the way, the city manager is suggesting that the brush be taken to some open area and burned.
One possible site identified so far for this is a large field adjacent to the city wastewater-treatment plant off U.S. 52 at the south end of town, which does not appear to be near any homes.
Farmer said this process is used in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, where he served as city manager for 13.5 years before resigning in October.
While saving money, the burning of brush could be viewed as creating other problems related to air quality, which Fire Chief Zane Poindexter commented on after that proposal was presented.
“Not with natural vegetation I don’t see any,” Poindexter said of disposing of such material in this manner.
“But if we were to get any complaints, we would surely address them,” the fire chief added.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com