News

July 22, 2008

Trash-hauler problem mulled

IAN CAMPBELL Times Leader Correspondent

PITTSTON TWP. – Supervisors on Monday acknowledged that the trash collection situation with United Sanitation in the township had not improved.

Earlier in the month, council paid Duryea Borough $917.63 for costs incurred in collecting garbage that the township’s hauler had failed to pick up. The amount had been deducted from the $12,799.42 United Sanitation bill, Supervisor Tony Attardo said.

The township had done everything it could to resolve problems with the collector, he said, and it was getting to the point where he feared the calls resulting from missed collections on Thursdays.

The company was under warning that it was putting its contract in jeopardy, Attardo noted, but at the same time, people also needed to remember that the only way the township could continue to offer free trash collection was if everyone stayed within the four-bag limit.

The township was also unhappy about the situation with the recycling center, which was still working with a collection container too high for most residents to easily put material into and too small to handle the amount of material going into it. Promises of a larger, more easily accessible container from United Sanitation had not been met, Attardo said.

The contract with United ends in April, but renewals or new arrangements need to be made by Sept., township Secretary John Bonita said.

In other business, supervisors awarded American Asphalt the contract for paving work on Frothingham, Sterling, Lincoln, Morris, Lewis and Law streets, but will re-advertise bids for Poole and Winter streets after learning that Winter had been approved for Community Development funding, and Poole could also fall within the income guidelines.

American Asphalt was also given the contract for work on Swallow Street earlier in the month.

Work will need to be done on Lincoln and some surrounding streets to deal with water runoff issues that residents brought before supervisors.

Residents say the cemetery on Lincoln Street is responsible for the runoff, but supervisors said they would check with the engineers employed by the Scranton Diocese to see what part the cemetery’s drainage layout could have played in creating the problem.

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