C&D News

C&D Landfill Becomes Church Fundraiser

In these times when most churches rely on bingo games, bake sales and raffles to raise money, the Life Spring Church of God, Mecklenburg County, N.C., received a permit to use land behind the church as a construction and demolition debris landfill, according to Bob Brickner, a senior vice president at Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc., Falls Church, Va., who recently visited the facility.

The landfill is a Land Clearing and Inert Debris facility, the easiest type of landfill to site, permit and operate in the state of N.C., says Brickner. The facility is operated by W.P. Mohle, a member of the church, who estimates the landfill has about 15 more years of operation before the available space is filled. The church owns a total of 40 acres of land, 13 of which are used for the landfill.

The landfill also serves the purpose of filling in steep, otherwise unusable land behind the church, providing additional parking and a great deal of recreational space – so far, four tennis courts, two softball fields, a snack bar, a series of soccer fields, an amphitheater, hiking trails, trailer park camp sites, a miniature golf course, and a children’s playground are planned.

The facility receives about 150 loads of material per day during peak construction periods. Much of the material is woody waste, and about 40 percent of this wood material is recovered and reused or recycled through local sawmills, a regional paper mill and a furniture manufacturer.

After the cost of operation and the management fee were paid, the church received an average income of $15,000 per month last year operating the landfill and recycling material, and during particularly strong months, the church may earn as much as $30,000.

"The Lord moves in strange and mysterious ways," Brickner quips.

C&D Video Wins Silver Award

Just as scrap processors and recyclers have worked to eliminate outdated perceptions that their facilities are "junkyards," demolition contractors want to update their image from guys wielding wrecking balls to contractors clearing obsolete buildings for new uses using sophisticated technologies. As part of this effort, Bianchi-Trison Corp., Syracuse, N.Y., has produced a video called "Demolition Dave and Backhoe Bill." The new video received a Silver Award at this year’s Syracuse Ad Club Awards Show.

Actual demolition footage is accented by animation, and the video is hosted by an 11-year-old narrator. The video is available from Bianchi-Trison at (800) DEMO-201.