Borough Changes Yard Waste Program

The West Chester Borough Council voted to change the yard waste program on Wednesday, limiting drop-off at the public works building to once a month as well as curbside pickup.

“This is not going to work,” said borough council member Chuck Christy.  “We’re just going to have piles of waste sitting in the alleys rotting.  Vermin are going to start living in it.  We’re going to have all kinds of raccoons and foxes.”

The borough’s Public Works Department had asked borough council to scale back the yard waste drop-off program because they felt it was being abused.

Currently, the public works drop-off site is open everyday, and it’s hard to enforce.

Borough council member John Manion also argued that it also comes down to cost.

“There are only finite resources,” Manion said.  “We need to make cuts somewhere, and we can’t keep increasing the tax burden.”

Under the new program residents would have the opportunity to drop yard waste off at the public works building once a month on a Saturday, and there will also be curbside pickup once a month.

Public Works plans to stagger the two programs so that residents shouldn’t have more than two weeks worth of yard waste.

The new program goes into effect Jan. 1, 2013, and residents will be notified via telephone message when the pickup days are nearing.

In total the change in the program could save the borough as much as $65,000 because public works would not have to buy a new wood chipper as well as a new truck to haul the chipper.