Panel reinstates yearlong twice-a-week trash pickup

Committee votes 3-2 to approve measure.

By:Eve Collins
   MANSFIELD — Residents will see their trash collected twice a week, all year, by the end of February now that the Township Committee has decided to reinstate the policy. The policy change comes at the behest of some residents who attended the meeting.
   The motion was accepted at the committee’s Jan. 22 meeting, with approximately 100 residents attending to hear discussion on the topic.
   The vote was 3-2, with Committeemen Kelly Shea and Ray Stupienski voting against the measure.
   "This was one of our promises to residents during our campaign," said Mayor Art Puglia, who explained that he, along with Deputy Mayor Patrick DeLorenzo and Committeeman Charles Schubert, went door-to-door to meet people and found that residents wanted the twice-a-week trash pickup policy reinstated.
   He said many residents also attended committee meetings last year about the matter.
   "Those people were assured this was going to happen," he said.
   Although residents spoke before the committee about trash collection at the meeting, Mayor Puglia, who described the crowd as "rowdy," said he thought most of the people were there for other issues.
   The mayor said the crowd was being discourteous to the panel by being noisy and shouting while others were trying to speak. Some even continued to speak after the motion was carried.
   Mr. Shea said the committee is still working on its 2003 budget, which will be adopted in March, but said that the line item for sanitation has already been increased to $60,000. The increase is for the manpower and equipment needed for the added service, he said.
   Mayor Puglia said one more employee is needed and some of the equipment needs work, but there already was money in the budget from last year for the changes, so taxes should not be affected. "We just have to be a bit more frugal," he said.
   According to Mr. Shea, who also is the township’s sanitation director, the service was reduced to collection once a week in April 2000 "in order to meet budget obligations." Reducing the frequency of trash pickups was suggested by former Sanitation Director Ron Carty, said Mr. Shea. There has been a debate on reinstating the service every year since, he said.
   A compromise was struck last year, said Mr. Shea, when the committee agreed that trash should be collected twice-a-week from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
   There was a slight increase in trash and, because of the heat factor, residents were concerned that there might be a health issue if the trash was only collected once a week, he said.
   "The committee agreed in 2000 that the service could be limited and still be provided for the community," said Mr. Shea. "I just hope the taxpayers can learn to live with it."