Shenandoah County, Woodstock discuss recycling, courthouse

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By Elizabeth Wilkerson -- ewilkerson@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- Recycling and the future of the historic courthouse were among the issues the Town Council and Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors took up at a joint meeting Monday night.

Mayor Bill Moyers said he and District 4 Supervisor Sharon Baroncelli had talked about having a meeting where the council and supervisors could discuss common issues. Baroncelli said there was no better time for the county and towns to partner than now.

Brad Dellinger, operations manager at the county's landfill, said the facility was pushing more recyclable materials through this year. The landfill now takes "any kind of plastic," he said, and computers are being sent off to be recycled.

In a month, about 150 tons of paper and cardboard, 20 to 25 tons of plastic, and 45 to 50 tons of tin and other metals are recycled, he said.

The next of the landfill's cells, which should last for about six years, will cover 4.5 acres and cost about $3.4 million, Dellinger said. The landfill is currently using the second of the nine cells it's designed for, County Administrator Vince Poling said.

"The biggest thing we can do is produce less trash to go to the landfill," Moyers said. The town is "looking at recycling very hard," he said, but is trying to find a way to do it without raising fees.

After some discussion of how the town and county could work together on recreation, Moyers asked Poling for an update on the new courthouse planned for the north end of town. The 32,000-square-foot courthouse will house Shenandoah County's General District and Juvenile and Domestic Relations courts, Poling said, as well as their clerks and the commonwealth attorney's offices.

The supervisors are still committed to renovating the historic courthouse downtown when the time comes, District 3 Supervisor David Ferguson said, and the work that the town has done around the building is encouraging.

In the time before the new courthouse is completed, the town and county could explore potential uses and renovation options for the old courthouse, Moyers said. The building's external appearance should remain unchanged, he said, but, aside from the original courtroom, the building's interior could be remodeled into something that would help draw visitors to the county and town.

"And that's good for everybody, if we get visitors in bringing dollars," he said.

At the appropriate time, Ferguson said, the county's property and public works committee was planning to put together a community-based group to decide what to do with the historic courthouse. It may not be too soon to start that, he said, and he'll see that the issue gets on the committee's agenda.