By Heather Michon
Correspondent
Despite gray skies, Fluvanna residents turned out in force for several Saturday events designed to make the community a safer and cleaner place to be.
In honor of Earth Day, the county hosted a hazardous waste and tire drop off at Pleasant Grove
Cars began lining up well before the event opened at 10 a.m., and Parks and Recreation Director Aaron Spitzer said the preliminary attendance count was between 300 and 350 cars. Some waited for 90 minutes or more to drop off old paint, motor oil, batteries, tires, and other hard-to-dispose items.
The county last held the event in April 2018, with COVID-19 forcing its cancellation last spring.
They were allocated $22,000 for waste collection and $2,200 for tire collection, but Spitzer said the Board of Supervisors had authorized some extra funds to make sure that, unlike previous Earth Day events, nobody was turned away.
“I was somewhat shocked at what I think was a low amount of tires brought to the event,” said Spitzer in an email. “With us not doing tires for two years, I thought there were definitely going to be more this year.” In the end, they filled one 48-foot trailer a little more than three-quarters full.
Final attendance and collection numbers will be released in the coming weeks.
OTHER EVENTS
Meanwhile, the Fluvanna County Sheriff’s Office held a drug take back event at Jefferson Pharmacy near Food Lion for residents to safely dispose of expired medications and drugs.
FCSO also helped organize and run a free rabies clinic at Fluvanna County High School. This event was co-sponsored by the Fluvanna SPCA and the Orange Veterinary Clinic, and around 300 dogs and cats received their vaccinations during the three-hour event.
Not to be outdone, the Lake Monticello Community Foundation hosted a “Community Shred Day,” bringing in mobile paper shredders from Document Destruction of Virginia to safely dispose of old papers at a low cost. Funds will go to the foundation and Lake Monticello Volunteer Fire and Rescue.
According to the Foundation’s Facebook page, a total of 2,600 pounds of paper were shredded, with some documents dating back to the 1970s. One family arrived with 309 pounds of papers to dispose. The shreds will be recycled into fresh new toilet paper and paper towels within the next six weeks.
