The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously, 7-0, during its regular October meeting to grant a request from Fuqua School to waive landfill tipping fees of $3,435.74.

There were only seven voters on the motion because Lockett District Supervisor Robert M. “Bobby” Jones was not present at the meeting.

County Administrator Wade Bartlett explained what led up to Fuqua’s request.

“What had happened is Fuqua had demolished three buildings,” he said. “Those buildings contained what buildings do: wood, Sheetrock, (roofing material,) etc. With that type of debris, we had no choice but to place the landfill. Based on an average of 0.6 tons per cubic yard, which was last calculated using waste from 2015-18, the 178,480 pounds that they disposed of in our landfill would have filled 53.54 cubic yards of airspace in the county’s landfill.

“Currently the daily waste stream fills approximately that 167 cubic yards each day, so the waste deposited by Fuqua represents 32% of an average day at the county landfill,” Bartlett continued. “As that amount was significant, I did not feel that I had the authority to make that decision, so I am bringing that request to the Board of Supervisors.”

Farmville 701 District Supervisor and Board Chairman Jim Wilck said he would like to make some comments on the subject.

“Fuqua is an asset to the county of Prince Edward,” he said. “They did us proud tonight, as you know, in here.”

Wilck’s comment of “They did us proud tonight” was a reference to the board’s recognition earlier in the meeting of young Fuqua students comprising a team that was competing in the 2019 Battle of the Brains that had achieved a first-round defeat of a seasoned team from Richmond-based Thomas Dale High School, which has a student body of 2,307 students compared to Fuqua’s 105 in the high school.

“I have talked to (Fuqua Head of School) John Melton, and (Fuqua is) very eager to help us on anything they can do on economic development and other things, and I’d like to make a motion that we waive that charge,” Wilck said.

He asked for a second to his motion, which quickly followed, leading up to the unanimous 7-0 vote