As many of you know, the Town of Marlinton has had a fence constructed around the materials yard at the Fourth Avenue Shop.
Some people wonder why the town would fence out its own citizens after all this time.
Let me be very clear, the intent was not to fence out residents or make it harder for residents to dispose of trash. But, we did have to take measures to keep certain individuals off the premises during non-working hours. We had at least four reasons for doing so.
Nightly dumpster divers would be reason number one. The was a mess left around the dumpsters absolutely every night. Dragging items out of the dumpsters was not as bad as the other trash that ended up outside of the dumpsters, while the search was going on inside. The back-and-forth traffic during the night was constant, as well.
Out-of-town trash placed in town dumpsters remained a problem and a close reason number two. Out of town trash or household items must go to the county green-box drop-off points. Locally, that is near the stockyards off the Old Fairground Road.
If a resident pays a solid-waste fee and leaves trash in town dumpster, the town pays again for the same trash. The only winner in this scenario is the landfill. Also, contractors beware. Dumpsters are for household garbage only. No building materials allowed.
Occasionally, a piece of equipment would be left outside of the building. Without exception, something would come up missing from it or broken. Call this reason number three for a fence.
Lastly, the old wooden fence was in pieces, unsightly to Greenbrier River Trail traffic, and too inviting to the night-time foot traffic.
I have had complaints about why the fence was put up, and I hope this helps citizens of the Town to understand the purpose.
Sorry, I cannot provide keys to individual users.
However, residents who want to take items directly to a dumpster at the Fourth Avenue location can still do so.
But the gate will only be open during working hours, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. until 3:45 p.m.
Sam