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Ordinance allows Public Works to enforce trash rules

By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer

(Jan. 23, 2020) A proposed change in the rules governing trash collection in Berlin would give the town’s Public Works Department the right to say no to certain materials put out at the curb for pickup.

Town Administrator Jeff Fleetwood

Re-introduced at the Berlin Town Council meeting on Monday, after a discussion in November went nowhere, was an amendment to the town’s the solid waste ordinance that would legalize the department’s practice of deciding what is suitable for collection and what is not.

Mayor Gee Williams and the council discussed the introduction of an ordinance amending, which will formally allow the Public Works Department more authority to enforce the rules, that will be further debated at a public hearing, which will take place at the next council meeting on Monday, Jan. 27.

Deputy Town Administrator Mary Bohlen discussed the ordinance changes.

“We did introduce this back in November, I believe, and it did have a 2019 number on it,” Deputy Town Administrator Mary Bohlen told the mayor and council. “However, because more than 60 days have passed since that introduction, we have to reintroduce it as if it’s a completely new ordinance. The time frame that has expired on that.”

According to Bohlen, the measure, which will go to a public hearing next Monday, is a bit of housekeeping that will codify the department’s authority to make on-the-scene decisions about what should be collected and what refuse the resident should dispose of by other means.

The wording in the ordinance will acknowledge that Public Works Director Dave Wheaton will have the authority to enforce the rules, which is what the department was already doing, according to Town Administrator Jeff Fleetwood.

“It’s giving Public Works the authority to say, ‘We don’t pick up paint, cardboard, etc.,” Fleetwood said.

Bohlen said the ordinance would not change how trash is handled, but would more clearly establish what the town can and cannot do.

“[Two weeks ago,] we had a Christmas tree and a recliner chair, logs, tree branches … we just have to get in there and take them out,” Wheaton said.

Another area the ordinance will address is recycling and the tendency of some residents to dump items that aren’t acceptable. Newspapers, paper, glass bottles, plastic and certain metals may be placed in the appropriate dumpsters, but materials that don’t make that list have also been deposited there, thus obligating public works crews to clean up the area at an additional expense to the town.

Residents in the audience asked about potential cameras that could identify the people responsible for dumping unauthorized trash in these specified dumpsters, but Police Chief Arnold Downing said it is not as simple as that.

“This is not the only recycle spot we’ve ever had,” Downing said. “They actually had it right in by the Public Works [building]. We had cameras and it’s very difficult if you don’t know who the people are or the vehicles … we can’t see tags. But cameras anywhere are going to be able to help. A better resolution will help.”