Convenience center leases pose problems
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Members of the Health and Welfare Committee discussed the issue at a meeting Thursday night in an effort to make plans to deal with the situation, which has been a concern for close to two years. Commissioners first began talks on the problem as early as August, 2004.
At that time Hubert Boyd, who owns the land where the Harrison Ferry center on Highway 8 is located, had indicated he no longer wants a convenience center on his property. Jack Rubley, who owns the Fairview center property, asked for a monthly fee when approached about renewing his lease.
Though one of the centers is located on county land, the majority are owned by individual citizens or businesses. These landowners basically donate the use of their property by signing 10-year leases for a minimal fee, as little as $1.
A project to pave all the county?s convenience centers, in part, generated the new talks on the issue. Road Superintendent Harold Glenn had agreed to plans for the highway department to tar and chip the Fairview center lot, but sanitation director Steve Hillis pointed out the lack of a lease agreement with Rubley presents an obstacle.
The amount of rent requested varies, with some officials reporting Rubley has asked for $100 per month, while others said they were told $200 per month.
Though the agreements on the Fairview and Harrison Ferry sites are still open, landowners on all 11 other sites had renewed 10-year leases, according to Hillis. Of the two sited, Hillis said the Fairview site got the most traffic and presents the biggest problem to replace.
?The one up at Fairview is heavily used,? Hillis said. ?You?ve got all of Irving College, they use it. A lot of Shellsford residents use it, and all the way back to Mt. Leo, some of them tend to use it. There may be some who use Highway 8, but most of them use that particular one. The lot is a 90-by-90.?
Commissioner Bill Yancy said he felt it would not be fair to pay rent at one site and not the others, but at the same time noted it would be expensive to pay rent on all 13 sites.
?We?ve talked to them about selling the property,? Hillis said. ?To me, that would be the best way, the cheapest way out, if he would sell it.?
Health and Welfare Committee chairman Wayne Pryor said there had been plans to buy the property with grant money, which did not come through.
Commissioner Danice Taylor asked about the possibility of getting some land from Fairview Community Center.
?They wouldn?t let us have anything out there,? Pryor said. ?In other words, we?ve got to work something out with Mr. Rubley, or abandon that area.?
Yancy said if a new location had to be found, it should accommodate a larger site.
?I think we should get a place big enough to have a full recycling center,? Yancy said, ?like the one at the fairgrounds.?
Pryor gave the committee an update on the Harrison Ferry center on Highway 8. Pryor said he had recently contacted Boyd.
?I called him about two or three weeks ago to talk to him about it,? Pryor said, ?and I asked him if he would forward a letter to the county executive requesting that we dissolve the center up there and take it off his property. We talked back and forth, and he finally said, ?Wayne, let me think about this for 30 days.?
?So right now, it?s in his ballpark,? Pryor said, noting the county is asking Boyd to make a formal decision so the Sanitation Department can either sign a lease or begin looking for another site.
The committee ultimately voted to begin actively searching for alternate sites, while still working with the owners to negotiate leases on the current sites if possible.