City officials want residents to be timely about when they put their trash out for collections.
Members of the Board of Aldermen and Police Chief Kevin Hale complained Tuesday about residents having trash out long before the scheduled pick-up days.
(Confused about when to drag the cans out? Click here for a street-by-street list that explains it all.)
Alderman Eugene Sharkey said he was surprised at how many homes had trash out on Bassett Street last month when he and other firefighters responded to a major house fire there.
“We have to educate people that trash doesn’t belong on the street until it has to be picked up,” he said.
According to city law, residents are only allowed to leave trash at the curbs of their property no more than 24 hours before or after the scheduled pick-up day. The maximum penalty for violating the rule is $100.
American Disposal Services collects trash for the city. Different streets are collected on different days.
Hale said he will talk with the aldermen about how to better inform the public about keeping trash off the sidewalks until the correct days of the week.
It may include a mass mailing to all residences, but he would not want to have an officer responsible for warning residents.
“It’s a quality of life issue,” Hale said. “It’s an issue we want to help resolve.”
Police have handed out just six trash violation tickets this year, Hale said. More often, people respond to a verbal warning, he said.
