Click here for the latest video announcement from Mayor Fox regarding recycling and bulk pick-up.

 

Hello everyone- Mayor Larry Fox here.

First- apologies for the ZOOM capacity issues we encountered at the Town Hall a few weeks ago.  I am happy to report that we now have increased our capacity and it shouldn’t be a problem going forward.

Also, thanks so much for all of the participation at the Town Hall meeting on the subject of  waste management.  Your questions, comments and concerns were heard; and we will take that input as we assess all of our waste management program components going forward.

First- to reiterate- REGULAR TRASH PICK-UP- there is no change.  This comprises 2/3 of our waste tonnage that we manage.

On RECYCLING- after your strong input on this, we will continue with every week pick-up for July through Labor Day week.  For the next 5 months, we will proceed with a pilot program to see if we can effectively shift to the proposed every other week plan on an ongoing basis.     We will do a survey week-1 June to assess where we are.  We are asking for your support to make this a success.  We’ll be monitoring this pilot very closely.

On BULK-  We have a challenge with our current bulk practices.  We have been working on a plan that includes your input.  The plan is near-completion.  The components of the plan under consideration are:

Going to a systemic 6-time a year street pick-up with stickers.  This would be on a schedule- the second Thursday of every month- alternating zones.  This is optimal for our Public Works Team.  The first pick-up will be March 10th in Zone 1 and the north portion of Zone 3 above Brinley Avenue. The second pick-up will be April 14th in Zone 2 and the south portion of Zone 1.

We heard the input on the yard access for bulk, and the option is to issue a card to each household for 6-drop offs per year at the Yard.  You can pick-up your card when you make your first drop-off.  There is no change to Computer, Electronic, and Metal.  This change begins March 10th

We will issue one other $50 sticker per household if anyone needs an additional drop. That would be a total of 13 opportunities for bulk disposal.

We believe all of these changes will help us more effectively manage our resources and give our residents a reasonable process.

On FILM RECYCLING-

We will retain the proposed schedule, leaving it at every other month. We will be working with the Environmental Commission on this.

Our Public Works Supervisor, Biago Cofone, has already communicated cross-training and additional improvements being made in town with the freed-up resources these changes afford. If you find you have more recycling than your household can reasonably store until the next pickup day, feel free to bring to the north yard.  We have expanded to 5 days open – an additional 8 hours.

We are doing our best to use your tax dollars responsibly. We believe these changes are good for the town and, again, we apologize for our communications gaffes. But let’s see how we can all pitch in to make it work — and then reassess.

Thank you for caring about our town, and we will see you around.