MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Patrick Hallett knocks icicles from his roof on Main Street in Radford. Hallett's trash has been sitting curbside for a few days awaiting pickup, which has been delayed because of snow. City Manager David Ridpath said sanitation crews are about two days behind, and regular pickup will begin as soon as the roads are clear.

In Radford, garbage pickup is behind schedule and it is unclear when it will be back on track, said Jimmy Dean, superintendent of streets and stormwater management.

"There's no set date for pickup," Dean said. "I don't have an answer on it, but we're asking people to be patient."

At Monday night's Radford City Council meeting, City Manager David Ridpath said crews are about two days behind, and regular pickup will begin as soon as the roads are clear.

Crews are picking up some bagged trash in a four-wheel-drive pickup truck and transferring it to garbage trucks, Dean said. But on many city streets, plows can't navigate because of cars parked along the curb, Dean said.

"When people park their cars in the street, we can't get the plows through," he said. "It hinders regular traffic, it hinders the plows and it can hinder rescue vehicles."

On Monday, a garbage trucks followed a backhoe clearing snow from the roads, he said.

Many Dumpsters are also inaccessible because of snow piled in front of them, Dean said.

"It's taking three times as long to do one run," Dean said. "We'll keep up as we can."

Residents can take garbage to the city's recycling center facility on 17th Street, which has been open as weather permits, he said.

Although he couldn't provide an exact number, the streets and sanitation departments have overspent their budgets in both overtime and snow-removal chemicals, such as salt, Dean said.

Updates about trash collections are available on the city's Web site, www.radford.va.us and Radford's cable access Channel 11.

Officials in Blacksburg and Christiansburg say that trash pickup is either on schedule or that crews should be caught up with collections by mid-week after the latest blast of snow.

Blacksburg Deputy Town Manager Steve Ross said Monday that the town is caught up on its collections, which included a Sunday pickup.

However, because of Tuesday's inclement weather the town had to postpone collection for the northwest quadrant of the town. Service is expected to resume today.

Ross said the delayed schedule has posed no additional costs to the town. Blacksburg contracts with Waste Management, and Ross said there are two days set aside in the service each week that can be used for makeup days.

Ross said when there are changes to the collection service the town gets the word out by using its Web site -- www.blacksburg.gov -- and its e-mail news alert system that residents can subscribe to receive.

In Christiansburg, Town Manager Lance Terpenny said, "by middle of the week we'll be caught up."

He said some of the town's trash collection delays happened when the landfill the town uses in Pulaski County closed late last week because of inclement weather.

"That meant our transfer station closed because we don't have space to stockpile the garbage. When that closed, we had to stop picking up trash," Terpenny said.

The landfill is now open and the town is again picking up trash.

Terpenny said there have been no additional costs to the town because of the weather impacts on the trash collection. He said a couple of days a week there is an extra crew that works on commercial trash pickup using that crew in addition to regular crews to help the town get caught up on its residential and commercial waste collection.

Terpenny said the town has worked to inform residents about collection on its Web site, www.christiansburg.org.

Residents of Blacksburg and Christiansburg and elsewhere in Montgomery County can also use the county's 10 recycling and collection sites where residents can dispose of household waste and recyclables.