Truce signed in trash fight

For two decades Robert Gochenour collected a pile of Augusta County zoning violations.

The county cited him time and again for storing his trash-hauling equipment on land set aside for agriculture, enough times to land the Crimora man in jail.

But an Augusta County Circuit Court decree signed Thursday seemingly ends the dispute, Augusta County Attorney Patrick Morgan said.

Gochenour, owner of Waste Movers, signed a court agreement requiring him to keep his equipment in a properly zoned area. According to the agreement, he’ll use land in Staunton he started renting in August 2007.

Both sides will avoid a confrontational trial in circuit court because of the agreement, attorneys said.

Waste Movers picks up customer trash and takes it to the regional landfill. In 2008, Gochenour told the zoning board his operation is strictly a terminal and that no garbage would be stored or processed at the landfill.

But the city of Waynesboro complained that trucks and containers full of trash were stored on site, and asked the court to order Gochenour to stop. In response, Gochenour said the Waynesboro Board of Zoning Appeals abused its power and wrongly denied him zoning approval.

A 2008 joint investigation by NBC29 and The News Virginian found Gochenour repeatedly violated his permits. In March 2008, a judge found him in contempt of court and sent him to jail. He served a few days behind bars.

The dispute dates back to June 1990, when Gochenour received his first of six letters of non-compliance. In following years Gochenour would receive three permit disapproval letters and view photographic proof of his violations.