Resident urges board not to place trash-collection site in Conroeck Circle; nonprofit reports on recovery and foster-care work

Laurie Storman, a Washington County resident from Conroeck, asked the Board of Supervisors to avoid siting a relocated trash-collection site in Conroeck Circle, the community’s town center and gathering place. Storman described Conroeck Circle’s veterans memorial, landmark statue and its role as a community hub, and offered to help the county identify alternate parcels for the collection site.

“Placing the trash collection site in the Conroeck Circle would almost be parallel to…putting it here in Abington at the trailhead of the Creeper Trail or in your Veterans Memorial Park,” Storman said. She asked the board to take neighborhood impacts into account and offered her volunteer services to help find other locations.

Linda Austin, representing Mad Penny and Hands and Feet Ministries, told the board that Mended Women has graduated 20 women, currently serves 24, and that the county’s foster-care caseload reached 108 children — a recent high. Austin said her groups are working with the Department of Social Services and Child Protective Services to “intercept before the removal happens” and to keep sibling groups together by using Mountain Mission School as a placement option.

Austin invited board members to a concert celebrating recovery on April 7 at the McLaughlin Center and said the program will include a reception and music. She asked the board to note community partners and resources as the county seeks to reduce foster-care removals.

Neither the trash-site request nor the nonprofits’ reports produced immediate board action at the meeting; public-comment items were advisory to the board’s subsequent agenda.