Michele Alperin, Princeton
I am writing in protest of the town’s policy to only pick up debris during the spring and fall. I think it is a shortsighted decision that is costing people in the town more money than they would spend in any extra taxes required to support an extra truck and driver.
During a recent rainstorm the crown from a maple fell down over our driveway, luckily missing our cars. We cut up the wood, which was a three-hour effort that included help from a friend who had a chainsaw. With the thought that this was a “significant” storm event, we put it in the street. Over the next two weeks, as we were contacting people in the town (only one of whom returned a phone call as promised, although the mayor did reply to the email we sent), we noticed many, many piles of branches all over town.
Eventually, after the town had sent out a worker to give out notices that branches had to be removed or a fine would ensue, I visited the Public Works Department, who told me that the police had to inform Public Works of a storm that was a “significant event,” then the police who sent me to the town administrator, Mark Dashield.
In the final phone conversation with Mr. Dashield, he told me that the town would send out a truck only if a significant storm brings down significant debris in a limited area of town.
The result of all this is that everyone in Princeton who has had branches fall down must either haul them to the designated location or call in someone to get rid of them, paying individually for something that could be done much more inexpensively on a neighborhood basis. (Of course that’s why we have government — it’s too hard for individual citizens to organize a group effort in a situation like this.) Ironically, when I spoke to the guy from Bartlett Tree Services who was at my neighbor’s, he looked at the pile and said, “The town will pick it up.” I apprised him of the reality (and hired Bartlett to shred the pile in front of our house).
Moreover, this does not deal with the reality that during the summer people often have more time and longer days in which to do yard work! But in Princeton, if they do, they have to find a place to leave the debris significantly away from the street, awaiting the first fall pickup time.
Michele Alperin
Princeton
