Aug. 15 - 21, 2019
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‘Recycling is broken,’ Republic Services’ municipal sales manager tells council members The company is proposing Stokesdale change to an everyother-week recycling collection schedule and a fee increase of $1.33 per month by PATTI STOKES STOKESDALE – “We’ve made significant gains … but obviously, we have room to improve,” Tony Krasienko, municipal sales manager for Republic
Services, told Stokesdale Town Council members at their Aug. 8 meeting. Krasienko’s opening comments were in response to complaints two residents voiced earlier in the meeting about Republic’s inconsistencies in picking up their trash and recycling and the unsatisfactory response they had received when they called the company to get a damaged
IN THIS ISSUE News in brief........................................ 3 Your Questions .................................... 4 Stokesdale Town Council................... 6 Calendar Events ................................. 8 Bits & Pieces .......................................10 NWO Business & Real Estate ............. 11 Farmers embrace industrial hemp ..12 Real Estate Briefs ................................14 This old barn .......................................18 Grins and Gripes............................... 25 Crime/Incident Report ..................... 26 Classifieds ..........................................27 Index of Advertisers...........................31
recycling container replaced. It was a tough prelude to Krasienko laying out the reasons Republic is proposing a fee increase, but after saying the company would continue to work on improving its customer service and it would “stand by either our successes or our failures,” he dove into his planned presentation and proceeded
to explain why recycling trends have strained the business model for those in his industry. In 2000, it took 48,000 plastic water bottles to make a ton of plastic, Krasienko said. Thanks to much more light-weight plastic bottles which companies began using years later, that number rose to 92,000 water bottles in 2015. More bottles mean more labor and processing time as well as wear and tear on equipment, he said – and that’s coupled with a much lower return on the sale of recyclables.
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Rezoning for Henson Village approved by Town Council Developer David Couch said he expects to complete the master site plan by the end of March 2020 by CHRIS BURRITT SUMMERFIELD – Summerfield Town Council voted 4-1 Tuesday night, Aug. 13, to approve a rezoning request for 6.7 acres on N.C. 150 at Interstate 73, advancing plans for the Henson Village shopping center. Blue Ridge Companies sought the rezoning of three parcels from agricultural and residential to conditional use – general business. The 6.7-acre tract now matches the zoning of 79 surrounding acres, allowing the developer to create a master plan for all of the 86 acres.
“We are now able to put together the best site plan,” Couch, Blue Ridge’s chief executive officer, said in an interview after the council approved the rezoning. He said he expects the company to complete a master site plan for the development by the end of the first quarter next year. Before it was rezoned, the 6.7 acres had been a “doughnut hole” in the larger tract, preventing what Couch referred to as “an optimal assemblage” of property for the proposed shopping center. Developing the 86 acres as a whole will reduce the number of entrances into the development on N.C. 150, allowing designers to “simplify the road pattern,” said Doug Stimmel, CEO of Simmel Associates, the landscape architect designing Henson Village for Blue Ridge.
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