GETTYSBURG TIMES (07/18/07): "Gettysburg trash pickup irks locals"

BY SCOT ANDREW PITZER

Times Staff Writer

Gettysburg leaders weren’t happy when the town’s trash collector recently gathered garbage an hour before they were legally authorized to begin the 7 a.m. service.

So officials invited the borough’s trash collector — Greencastle based Waste Management — to their Monday afternoon Gettysburg Borough Council public works committee session.

“We’ve had some issues with early morning pickup, trash bins missing, and alley pickup,” borough manager John D. Lawver, Jr., said during Monday’s meeting. “I think it’s all workable. We just need to talk to one another.”

Monday’s dialogue with Waste Management representatives Ed Brown and Tom Stang ranged far beyond early morning pickup displeasure.

“One of the big issues we have is when trash containers overflow on a Saturday night, and you don’t pickup on Sundays,” council president Theodore H. Streeter told Waste Management representatives.

“It’s not a big occurrence, but it does happen after special events.”

A handful of the half-dozen residents who attended Monday’s meeting concurred with Streeter.

“I think the borough should be concerned about the streets and downtown appearance on Sundays,” resident Susan Naugle said. “There aren’t enough receptacles out there. We can do better.”

Colton Motel manager Andrew Manley, whose business is located along Steinwehr Avenue, indicated that last weekend’s Bike Week festivities resulted in a filthy Steinwehr appearance.

“My guests were on the street picking up trash,” said Manley. “This is Gettysburg, and my guests are complaining to me about the trash in the gutters. This is 48 hours after an event. This is unacceptable to the taxpayers.”

The town’s governing body has, in the past, targeted Steinwehr as a significant trash collection area, but efforts within Gettysburg’s gateway from the south have faded recently.

“We used to have a lot of bins out there,” 3rd Ward councilman Robert E. Miller said Monday, “but the businesses didn’t want them, so we took two away.”

Third Ward councilman Edwin R. Peterson is a proponent of giving the Steinwehr corridor more trash pickup attention.

“The trash bins on Steinwehr were burgeoning last weekend. It’s the most frequented street in Gettysburg, aside from the square,” Peterson told Waste Management. “We’d appreciate it if you could make that one of your first stops.”

Stang indicated that he’d be happy to alleviate the borough’s Steinwehr concerns. While he maintained that his operation wouldn’t be collecting trash on Sundays, he promised to place ‘special event’ garbage containers downtown during heavy tourist weekends.

“We can also work with you so that Steinwehr is our first stop on Mondays,” Stang said Naugle thinks Waste Management could use more manpower on various routes through town.

“Sometimes, you only have one person on your trucks,” she said Monday afternoon, using an example of when she recently left the town’s Post Office, along Buford Avenue, and attempted to travel west toward the Lutheran Theological Seminary — an approximate quarter-mile commute.

“It took me 30 minutes to get to Howard Avenue and make a turn at the Seminary,” Naugle continued. “There was just one person driving...stopping...and getting the trash. This was on Route 30 so that’s not a good situation.”

Stang deemed that Naugle was caught behind a recycling truck.

“Typically our recycling routes are just one person,” Stang said. “Trash pickups have a helper.”

Brown requested an earlier pickup time on Monday mornings, claiming that launching his service an hour or so earlier prior to the borough’s 7 a.m. ordinance requirement would alleviate traffic congestion.

Waste Management hauls residential trash in Gettysburg on Mondays. Commercial garbage duties are performed throughout the week.

“We could get in and out of town before the traffic is here and before we can back any traffic up,” Brown said.

Stang elaborated.

“Earlier start times help with traffic flow, and help particularly when the weather gets hotter,” he told officials. “If our crews could get an hour or two jump on their routes, that would be beneficial.”

But town leaders aren’t budging — at least for now — with the borough’s 7 a.m. pickup time.

“There is currently no provision in our ordinance that would allow an earlier pickup time to happen,” Lawver said. “Our ordinance requires no pickup in town before 7 a.m.”

The borough is presently in the middle of a five-year contract with Waste Management.

Contact Scot Pitzer at 334-1131, ext. 247 or spitzer@gburgtimes.com.