Berkeley County briefs

June 30, 2006|by MATTHEW UMSTEAD

Berkeley Co. surplus sale set for July 15

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A meat slicer, a few antiques, vinyl siding and about 27 vehicles are among items to be sold July 15 at Berkeley County's surplus sale, commissioners decided Thursday.

A list of items to be sold beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Crawford Building off West Stephen Street includes portable partitions, desks, waiting room chairs, computers and printers. The vehicles to be sold will be sold from the parking lot along the building's east end.

W.Va. landfill limits relaxed for June

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - State officials this week suspended the monthly tonnage limit for the North Mountain Sanitary Landfill near Hedgesville to keep the disposal site open through the Fourth of July holiday.

"With completion of the (Jefferson County) transfer station (anticipated July 30), I look forward to resolution of the disposal capacity matter," acting West Virginia Bureau for Public Health Commissioner Chris Curtis wrote Monday in a letter to Stephanie R. Timmermeyer, the state's Department of Environmental Protection secretary.

Curtis told Timmermeyer the landfill was expected to reach the landfill's 9,999 ton-per-month limit Tuesday, and was concerned about a potential public health and safety threat if solid waste was not collected until the middle of next week.

In a related matter, the Berkeley County Commission on Thursday declined to expedite a building permit request by Apple Valley Waste Service Inc., the company that is expected to assume residential refuse collection for Berkeley and Jefferson counties beginning Aug. 1.

The permit request is for establishing office space on a piece of land Apple Valley expects to lease from Waste Management Inc., the landfill owner and current provider of the residential collection service, Apple Valley general manager James Phillips said after the meeting.

Air quality levels nonthreatening

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Air quality in Berkeley and Jefferson counties since May 1 mostly has remained at levels not threatening to residents, Berkeley County commissioners were told Thursday.

"We have had one "(code) orange" day" in that time period, Clean Air Task Force director Mike Ball said.

On May 30, officials determined the air quality index reached a level that was unhealthy for sensitive groups, but similar conditions forecasted for June 18 did not materialize.

There were 11 "yellow," or moderate, days and 55 green coded days, Ball said.

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