To the Editor: Keep Ivy Transfer Station Open

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Letters reflect the opinions of their authors and not necessarily those of the Crozet Gazette. Send letters to [email protected] or P.O. Box 863, Crozet, VA 22932.

Keep Ivy Transfer Station Open 

We wish to thank all the signees of the petition to keep Ivy Transfer Station open.  The response from the community has been very encouraging.  We also wish to thank the following businesses who placed the petition on their counters: Batesville PO, B&B Cleaners, Blue Ridge Builders, Community Garage, Crossroads Store, Crozet Hardware, Crozet Insurance, Crozet Running, Gateway Market, Green House Coffee, Mudhouse, Office Quad, Olive Tree, Parkway Pharmacy, Piedmont Store, Scott’s Ivy Exxon, Toddsbury of Ivy, Trading Post, Trailside Coffee, Wyants Store.  Last, but not least, Crozet Great Valu, where we placed a table at their door.

A short history is as follows:  Several years ago, Charlottesville City Council stopped funding the Ivy Transfer Station. As costs mounted for the County, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) decided to close Ivy and open three convenience centers: one in the north, one in the south and another in the western part of the County. In pursuit of their plan to build the convenience centers, the BOS sent out a request for proposals for potential operators for the three convenience centers. The only proposal that was acceptable came from Van der Linde in Fluvanna, who offered to operate them for FREE in return for the recyclables. Anything that could not be recycled would go to the incinerator in Harrisonburg that makes steam for JMU.

At a public hearing on January 8, there was so much opposition to the two proposed sites for a southern convenience center that the BOS voted to take both sites off the table and keep the Ivy Transfer Station open until July 1, 2015. Currently the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority (RSWA) manages and controls the Ivy Transfer Center for the county.  They send our trash to a landfill east of Richmond to be buried.

It is the opinion of the authors of the petition that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a duplicate of Ivy somewhere in Crozet that would provide fewer services is a waste of taxpayer money. Because of many phone calls and e-mails from her constituents expressing dismay at the county’s decision to close Ivy, White Hall Supervisor Ann Mallek has changed her position to one similar to ours.  In response to her constituents, Ann proposes that Albemarle County apply for its own permit from the Department of Environmental Quality to run the Ivy facility and either lease or buy the Ivy Transfer Station from the RSWA, thereby eliminating RSWA from this equation.

The current focus now is on a comprehensive trash management policy.  The trash would be reduced to a very small amount, and the greater portion would be recycled.  We applaud this line of thought!  However, we should not lose focus on our need for a place to put our trash now.

Let’s keep the Ivy Transfer Station open.  We really appreciate your support.  Please try to attend future public hearings because your presence would make a difference!

Paul Grady, Claudia Sacellary
Crozet