Sunday, January 21, 2007
Frog Pond offers more than recreation
New River Field Guide
Recent columns
- The Field Guide has led readers on five years of adventures
- New River Deli in Pembroke is still down-home
- Sal's of Radford fame comes to Blacksburg
- Bridge makes a big difference in Heritage Park
The big mess at Montgomery County's Frog Pond and Mid-County Park has gotten bigger.
Worse, at some point this jumble of debris overflowed the dumping grounds, tumbling over a steep bank into a wooded area below. The cleanup -- if a cleanup is ever undertaken -- is going to be difficult.
If you're unfamiliar with the mess, picture dozens of mounds of refuse dumped near the road and encroaching on the park's parking lot. I took a muddy ramble through this wasteland recently and found asphalt chunks, gravel, broken concrete slabs, bricks, logs, lumber, tree branches, roots, dirt, mulch, a tire and, quite prominently, some sewer or water pipes.
Where the different varieties of this mess have begun to slide over the edge, they leave a rainbow of rubble behind. In truth, there is so much material over the edge that it's hard to imagine that it wasn't intentionally dumped or bulldozed over the bank.
Needless to say, the accumulation at the bottom of the bank looks like a disaster area.
Bizarrely, a yellow sign stands between all this and the road. The sign says "No Dumping On This Side of Fence." I'm not sure where the fence is, but that's beside the point. The bigger question is: Why dump on either side of the fence?
The county dump (technically the trash transfer station, since Montgomery County's waste is shipped to a regional landfill in Pulaski County) is almost within shouting distance.
Surely that's a better place for these materials. And if there's some plan to reuse these materials, a place must be found where they will neither spill over into the woods nor create a displeasing eyesore at the entrance of the county's main recreation area.
Bottom line: Perhaps the plan is to slowly turn the Frog Pond and Mid-County Park into a new landfill. If so, we're off to a great start.
Directions: To view the mounds for yourself, follow Peppers Ferry Road past Lowe's and cross over the U.S. 460 bypass. Peppers Ferry Road will end and you'll follow Cinnabar Road to the left. You'll pass the official dump, then, after passing under the pedestrian bridge, you'll see the new dump on your right.
Note: Last week, I mentioned the New River Valley Mall movie theater's role in the demise of the Lyric Theatre. A reader worried that people might be confused by this. To clear things up: I was referring to the demise of the theater as a private business, before its rebirth as a community-run cultural center.
