Carroll Valley yard and oil waste collection

(9/16) As many are aware, Carroll Valley has been offering a yard waste collection site for residents to dispose of their yard waste including branches, leaves, cut grass etc. so the waste doesn’t accumulate in their yard. The Borough also has a waste oil collection site for residents to dispose of their waste oil, specifically motor oil. The Borough has been offering this service for years, and Borough Manager Hazlett discussed the issue during the September 13 Board Council meeting.

Hazlett informed the Council that it is the time of year to be arranging the collection of both the yard waste and the waste oil. The companies who have been removing the waste products for years free of charge will now be charging the Borough a fee to remove the materials. The Yard Waste removal company is charging $100 per truckload of yard waste, and Hazlett estimated that there would be approximately 30 tractor-trailer truckloads of material to be removed, which would cost the Borough approximately $3,000. The waste oil tank also needs to be emptied, and the company who has emptied the tank in the past is also now charging a fee to provide their service.

As the Borough has not needed to pay for the removal of the waste material in years past, the cost was not budgeted in the current budget. Hazlett asked the Council for their opinions and suggestions on how to proceed further.

Council members discussed the matter and questioned the suspension of the service. Hazlett recommended they not suspend the service as it is currently highly utilized by residents in the community looking to dispose of their yard waste and waste oil. Both services are appreciated by residents, and Hazlett assured the Council that the absence of the services would be frowned upon community wide.

Council member Bruce Carr suggested the Borough place a security camera at the collection site to help monitor people utilizing the yard waste and oil waste disposal site. Unfortunately, as many people are using both disposal sites properly, there are also many people both within and outside Carroll Valley who are using the disposal sites improperly. Some use the area to dumb larger items that are not included as part of the properly disposed of material, and cost the Borough extra space and now, money, to truck out. Others are dumping non-oil products such as antifreeze into the waste oil tank. Hazlettt has been back and forth with the idea of a trail camera, and does believe that it would be beneficial for catching people who are misusing the disposal site.

In the end, The Council recommended that the oil tank be emptied as soon as possible, as it is already almost full and that the yard waste area be left alone until additional options are researched. The yard waste disposal site covers a large area of land, and even though there is a lot of waste material present, the removal of said material due to lack of space is not in dire need at the moment.