Cornershot
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
7. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
8. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
10. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
I dump old, cold coffee out the window of my car.
The operator of Roanoke’s city-owned garages helpfully points out the downside of this practice inside a parking facility: It makes a mess.
The janitors who tidy up the garages carry cleanser and brushes to lift coffee stains from the concrete floors. They clean up dried or drying puddles of soft drink and food, too.
Apparently, this is not an occasional duty. It happens enough that the city parking bureau recently issued a reminder to garage users about proper coffee disposal.
“Please think twice before dumping that leftover coffee,” a city newsletter said. “Your parking surface and Park Roanoke thank you.”
The user-supported parking garage network will stay cleaner and parking should, over the long run, cost less if people discard old coffee and all other refuse in the trash can, the city said.
What about dumping coffee in traffic or at an intersections? Technically, that would represent a discharge to the storm sewer system and that’s prohibited in an effort to keep stormwater, which is released untreated into streams, as clean as can be, said Mark Jamison, Roanoke’s manager of transportation.
Jamison didn’t sound too worried about excess coffee, however. He said it doesn’t represent a significant pollution issue compared to other threats to stormwater quality such as litter including plastic bags and cigarette butts, motor oil residue, lawn chemicals, pet waste, grass clippings and leaves.
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
7. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
8. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
10. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area
THE ROANOKE TIMES
