From now on there will be defined rules in town for the annual spring pickup of large household items.
On Feb. 24, town council approved an administration recommendation to have a first-ever policy on the once-a-year large item pickup program that was introduced three years ago.
The annual large item pickup service was created with the intent to assist with the management of solid waste in the community and keep residential properties in a state of consistent cleanliness.
However, there have been growing concerns the service was not completely understood by many members of the public and was even abused.
“Our larger item pickup has been abused in the last three years, and has cost us a lot in manpower,” said Mayor Brian Spiller.
In his report to council, Craig Teal, the director of planning and operational services, said the amount and type of items put out by residents raised questions about the intent of the service, as well as expectations on residents and the amount of resources the town is devoting to the service, which will again run in May of this year, concurrent with other municipal spring cleanup initiatives.
“Certainly they (residents) were putting out items for pickup but it wasn't the items we envisioned and the quantities were a little bit more than we thought. A lot of it was regular domestic garbage that could have gone in the regular weekly garbage pickup,” said Teal. “You can't put your chesterfield you no longer wish to have in your weekly garbage pickup so that is why we provide this one-time a year service for the things we would not ordinarily pick up on any other weekly service we already offer.
“This policy clarifies the number of items we will pick up per household and what is eligible versus ineligible items,” he added.
The new policy will have a maximum limit of three items per household. Eligible items include large visual display devices, stoves and barbecues, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, large furniture items, snow blowers and lawn mowers. Ineligible items include any appliance containing Freon, yard and construction waste, scrap steel and metal, automobile parts and liquids of any type.
Teal said the cost to taxpayers to have the program runs between $20,000 and $25,000.
He said the program will run on Mondays in the month of May with each Monday covering one of four quadrants in the town.
“To make its way through all the four quadrants we are anticipating it will be four Mondays,” said Teal. “If we don't finish one of the quadrants because there is a lot of material out there we will go into Tuesday.”
