MONONGALIA COUNTY, W.Va. — Monongalia County commissioners have announced the move of their recycling facility and a utility theft problem in the western end of the county.
Beginning around 11 a.m. Wednesday the current recycling drop-off site at Westover City Hall will close, and county workers will begin moving bins to the new site at the Morgantown Industrial Park, according to Commissioner Tom Bloom. Security has been added to prevent residents from trying to access the site after business hours.
The new site will open at 7 a.m. Wednesday for regular business moving forward. As a grand opening promotion, SABO Coffee Roasters will offer free coffee from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Thursday.
“Everything looks great, and we’re probably the only site that has barbed wire around it because we don’t want people to dump garbage on our site,” Bloom said. “It’s fantastic, and we’re pleased with it.”
The new dedicated site has ample ingress and egress that provides a more orderly process for residents and those who staff the facility. The new facility will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and closed on the weekends.
“That will give us more time for the individual there to work with the people dropping off recycling to make sure it is recyclable,” Bloom said. “There will also be less wear and tear on our truck and lower transportation costs.”
Commissioner Sean Sikora reported investigations into the theft of copper and fiber optic lines in the western end of the county. A resident in the area notified him when they had no service, and he began to check the area.
“There are a number of cases where people are trying to get copper lines,” Sikora said. “We had an incident on the western end where they actually cut a fiber optic line, which renders the line worthless once they do that.”
Monongalia County Sheriff Todd Forbes did confirm incidents, according to Sikora, in addition to at least one arrest. Residents in the area should watch for things that don’t look quite right and notify the sheriff’s department.
“I would want to bring public attention to this because people think you can take a copper line like it’s no big deal,” Sikora said. “But, you’re cutting people off from their lifeline, which is their communication.”
Sikora said the companies providing service in the area have reported the theft of copper and fiber optic facilities in the western end of the county as well. Increased awareness will hopefully draw enough attention to scare the bad guys away.
“It’s a problem, and every ISP (internet service provider) I’ve talked to says” Yes” that is a problem in our area—they’re having a lot of issues with people trying to steal copper too.”