Commission consolidating trash sites to cut costs, fight out-of-county abuse
By SPARKY NEWSOME editor

Residents on the eastern side of the county, toward Lincoln County, undoubtedly have noticed that trash dumpsters have been moved. An effort to trim costs by consolidating dumpster sites has begun and it started with the dumpsters located near Burgess' Store on Highway 378.

Those dumpsters have been moved to the dumpster site behind the Golden Pantry near the junction of Highway 378 with Highway 78 on the east side of the City of Washington.

"Our plans are to consolidate cans county-wide but on that side of the county, especially, we have been getting a lot of trash from Lincoln County through the years and we feel like this will at least make it a little more difficultfor them to abuse us and cost us lots of money," County Commission Chairman Sam Moore said, adding that, "It's expensive to handle trash."

Moore explained that many counties, especially to the south, have already consolidated dumpster sites, some down to where the sites are six miles apart. While he said Wilkes County's plans don't go that far at the present time, there are a lot more sites for which consolidation is planned.

"We hope to keep them all convenient for the people in the county but we have also got to be cost conscious," Moore said. The idea is to make fewer stops for the truck because of time considerations and fuel costs.

Moore also reported that the county had actually received a call from someone in Lincoln County who wanted to know the new location of the dumpster on 378.

During the regular December meeting of the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners, aerial photography of the county was approved at a budgeted cost of about $38,000. Wilkes County had already agreed to have the job done but had been attempting to get neighboring counties to do likewise in order to get a better deal. However, other counties are "not ready to move forward" to move forward at this time, according to County Administrator David Tyler.

The flyover would provide color digital renderings of the entire county to be used immediately by the tax assessors officeand eventually by the Ground IdentificationSystem (GIS). Also, eventually the maps will be available to the public via the internet.

All of the commissioners were present at the December 13 meeting including Divenski Lee, Donna Hardy, John Howard, Jerry Stover, and Moore. Also attending were County Attorney Charles LeGette, Tyler, and a number of visitors and concerned citizens.

In other business:

l The board voted to change the seat on the Wills Memorial Hospital Authority previously held by a commissioners from a one-year term to a four-year term. Polly Fievet was then appointed to that seat to succeed Hardy. Dave Derrick was appointed to fillthe unexpired term of Joe Griffin. Chris Andrews and Kerry McAvoy were reappointed to four-year terms and Dr. David Kirk was reappointed to a one-year term.

l Lee was reappointed to a twoyear term on the Washington-Wilkes Parks and Recreation Department board.

l The board approved a resolution allowing for the continued collection of $1.50 per month on telephone bills for the funding of the county's 911 system.

l Tyler reported that $72,989.01 in local option sales tax had been received for the month of September and that $112,393.82 in special purpose local option sales tax had been received for the same month.

l Wilkes County EMS Director Blake Thompson reported that construction on the building additions

"looks good" and that heating

and air conditioning was due to be

November 9, 2006

installed right away.

l Wilkes County Tourism Director Ashley Barnett gave a report on the previous month's activities including Candlelight Shopping Downtown, the Washington-Wilkes Historical Foundation's Christmas Tour of Homes, the Washington Christmas Parade, and the Liberty Street Park cleanup. She also announced that Washington will be a host city for the Tour de Georgia bicycle race in the spring of 2008.

The next regular meeting of the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners will be held on Thursday, January 10, at 7 p.m.

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