WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg City Council authorized the city’s participation in an opioid settlement on Thursday and secured recycling drop-off services for the foreseeable future.
Williamsburg residents can drop off recycling and trash at the Tewning Road and Jolly Pond Road convenience centers, and an agreement approved by the council will allow the arrangement with the James City County-owned centers to continue until one party terminates the agreement or it is renegotiated.
A study revealed that roughly 20% of the people who use the centers are city residents; thus, the city agreed to pay 20% of the operating costs, amounting to $12,000 per year. The city will also pay 20% of capital improvement costs up to $100,000. Anything exceeding that amount will be negotiated by the localities.
Recyclables and trash that can be dropped off include paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and jugs, glass bottles and jars, aluminum and tin, antifreeze, kitchen grease, motor oil, propane tanks (20-pound maximum), lead-acid batteries, scrap metal and appliances made of 50% metal.
“I am one who particularly uses the Tewning Road one now that they have separate containers for glass, and I think that that may be a reason there may be more city residents that use that as opposed to throwing their glass in with their regular recycling,” council member Barbara Ramsey said.
Tewning Road also has an oyster shell depository, Ramsey said.
Also Thursday, City Council also approved Williamsburg’s participation in an opioid settlement involving Kroger.
Virginia agreed to participate in a settlement agreement reached with Kroger, and the total amount of the money the commonwealth receives will depend on how many localities agree to participate.
“The City’s relative share of the settlement is very small (0.085% of the non-litigating locality share), which equates to a few thousand dollars per year per settlement,” according to the agenda item.
Most of the funds the city receives will need to be used to address damage caused by the opioid epidemic. So, Williamsburg is participating in an application led by James City County to seek state funding for a drug court to serve the region.
Sam Schaffer, samuel.schaffer@virginiamedia.com
Emma Henry, emma.henry@virginiamedia.com
![If it were not for the efforts of a William & Mary president in the 1960s there would not have been a marine science program to benefit from the school’s recent largest financial gift. Davis Y. Paschall, president 1960-1971, was instrumental in the development of the substantial academic programs of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at nearby Gloucester Point on the York River, The Virginia Fisheries Laboratory was established in 1940 as the Virginia Fisheries Laboratory as a joint effort between W&M and the Virginia Commission on Fisheries (now the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. It was initially organized […]](https://www.pilotonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/6SCYSOUXX5GSHC7UWSYZ2RSEAU.jpg?w=408 "If it were not for the efforts of a William & Mary president in the 1960s there would not have been a marine science program to benefit from the school’s recent largest financial gift. Davis Y. Paschall, president 1960-1971, was instrumental in the development of the substantial academic programs of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at nearby Gloucester Point on the York River, The Virginia Fisheries Laboratory was established in 1940 as the Virginia Fisheries Laboratory as a joint effort between W&M and the Virginia Commission on Fisheries (now the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. It was initially organized […]")
