Pittsylvania County, VA

Pittsylvania County is making efforts to enhance solid waste services for County residents. Two new convenience centers have been opened in the northern end of the County in the early fall of 2022 and another will open in the Spring of 2023. The goal is for every County resident to have a convenience center within five miles of their home. 

County staff are also working to improve some of our existing convenience centers. Plans are underway to expand the Mount Hermon site (the County's busiest), and improvements to the Motley and Berry Hill sites will take place as funding becomes available. 

New Convenience Centers

A new convenience center on Climax Road (8004 Climax Road, Gretna) opened to the public on Monday, August 22. The site has open-top boxes for bulky items and furniture, recycling, a compactor, and an easy drive-thru. The site is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. 

Another new convenience center in Level Run (7550 Level Run Road, Long Island, VA) opened to the public on September 12, 2022. The site has open-top boxes for bulky items and furniture, recycling, a compactor, and an easy drive-thru. The site is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. 

The estimates used when trying to determine the amount of money to borrow were $362,761 for the Level Run Road Convenience Center and $633,351 for the Climax Road Convenience Center, respectively. After a request for proposals for both projects, the actual bids that were chosen were $375,694.25 and $499,611.39, respectively. Combined, these two contracts came in about $115,000 under the projected costs.

In what will be the largest of the County's convenience centers, a new site is also under construction at Meadow Ridge Court (photo below) in Gretna. After an extensive design and engineering process, a local company was awarded the construction project in May. As of December 6, all concrete work has been complete, the stone base is being placed, and paving will begin soon! Compactors are also set to be delivered in the next few weeks.

We expect the new Meadow Ridge site to be operational around March, 2023.

As these new convenience centers become operational, the County Public Works Department is closing several nearby greenbox sites. With the launch of the Climax and Level Run Road sites, there are only seven greenbox sites left in the County/ Convenience centers are more efficient to operate for County staff, both in terms of logistics and cost. They are also better for County residents because they have recycling and bulk debris disposal options. 

These three new convenience centers are part of an effort to add more actual convenience centers in the northern end of the County. Historically there were more convenience centers in the southern end and more greenbox sites, as well as areas with no trash disposal sites nearby, in the northern end. County leaders have been pushing for the past several years to provide the same level of service in the northern half of the County.

Improving Existing Convenience Centers

In addition to these new sites that are being developed, the County is examining options for improvements to several existing sites. Public Works Director Chris Adcock provided a presentation to the Board of Supervisors in July about some of these plans, which currently include a design for an expansion at the Mount Hermon site and considerations for the Berry Hill and Motley sites. 

In November, the Board of Supervisors directed Pittsylvania County staff to move forward with the expansion of the Mount Hermon convenience center, which is the busiest of all County sites. The expansion will add space for two more compactors and two more roll-off or recycling boxes. 

Pittsylvania County has already purchased the necessary land to complete this project, which has an estimated price-tag of $510,650. This is for paving, compactors, electrical work, grading, and engineering. The Public Works Department has $538,153 remaining in its compactor site improvement account, which will be utilized for this project. 

Engineering consultants for the County have also developed improvement plans for the Motley and Berry Hill sites. 

Motley

• Paving existing gravel areas, providing a new compactor, adding additional lighting, improving traffic control, and fence repairs
• Estimated total cost: $329,960

 Berry Hill

• Paving new areas, improving traffic control, adding additional fencing, and engineering. 
• Estimated total cost: $315,420
  

The County will move forward with these two improvement projects as funding becomes available.