Trash

Hagerstown's new solid-waste contract approved this week will expand services for residents at less cost than what the city pays now. The five-member Hagerstown City Council Tuesday unanimously approved a new, three-year contract with Waste Management of Pennsylvania starting on Jan. 1, 2012. Collection for trash, recycling and yard waste will be simplified for most residents into a single, weekly pickup, City Engineer Rodney Tissue said. The new plan will also save residents a few dollars annually on their refuse bill, according to city documents.

More than 50 volunteers pulled mounds of trash from the Antietam Creek during the Antietam Creek Watershed Alliance's sixth annual Rubbish Roundup on Saturday, Sept. 17. Despite high water, cool weather and occasional sprinkles, volunteers filled a dump truck with trash. They also piled metal objects in a pickup truck and collected multiple bags of plastic bottles, aluminum cans and other recyclables. Noteworthy items pulled from the creek included an automotive crankshaft and drive shaft, a mini-bike and a shopping cart basket.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners Tuesday considered a "pay-as-you-throw" trash-disposal service that would encourage more county residents to recycle their trash. Under one possible scenario in that proposal, people would purchase two different trash bags, according to Richard Schulman, a member of the Washington County Solid Waste Advisory Committee. Bags for regular garbage would cost a lot more than bags for recyclables, providing an incentive for people to recycle more, Schulman said at Tuesday afternoon's meeting.

No, Funkstown residents weren't seeing things when their trash got picked up twice last week. Town Councilman Richard L. Gaver sent an email alert last Tuesday to people who subscribe to the town's website to let them know that trash would be picked up Friday rather than Thursday due to the Labor Day holiday. The town's contract with Apple Valley Waste has trash pickup pushed back a day when there is a holiday on a Monday, Town Clerk/Treasurer Brenda Haynes said during Monday night's town meeting.

“I hear the AAUW is having a new book sale in October. So where do you drop off the books and movies, and also, will anyone be there to collect them?” - Hagerstown “Has anyone else received a call from the U.S. Treasury, from Washington, D.C., offering a $7,000 grant that does not have to be paid back? They want to know how you would use it. When I could not answer them, they hung up on me. Watch out.” - Fairplay “I attended the recycling meeting at North High the other evening, and even though there weren't too many people there, I'd like everybody else to know that one county commissioner was at the Boonsboro recycling meeting, which was good; we had three other county commissioners there.

The Hagerstown City Council said Tuesday it will consider various refuse collection service options before it commits to a new contract starting next calendar year. The city's solid-waste contract is set to expire at the end of calendar year 2011, City Engineer Rodney Tissue said. Tissue presented the council with a list of possible service options to consider including in a bid package he will issue in the coming week. Council members decided to include all 10 of the alternatives listed on the draft bid sheet, and also asked that an option for less frequent yard waste collection be added.

Hagerstown City Council is scheduled to discuss Tuesday a number of trash and recycling options for city residents and businesses. City staff will present the council with a draft of a bid proposal form that includes numerous options for recycling and trash service, according to city documents. The purpose of the discussion is to have the council review the options prepared by staff to ensure the city covers all the alternatives that the council wants to consider when new bids are received for recycling and trash service, the documents said.

Hagerstown area needs to step up recycling efforts To the editor: Why does the Hagerstown area make it so challenging to be “green?” I moved from Montgomery County, Md., to Hagerstown in 2010. From day one, I used the recycling receptacles off of Dual Highway. They were often full. And nonrecycling trash was usually stacked next to them. Earlier this year, the Dual Highway recycling receptables were removed. I now have fewer options for recycling, and these are further away and usually overflowing.

Apple Valley Waste will take over trash collection for Funkstown beginning in July, Town Clerk/Treasurer Brenda Haynes said Monday night. The Funkstown Town Council voted 4-0 Monday night to award the one-year waste collection contract to Apple Valley Waste, which had the lowest bid at $54,661. Council members John Phillips III and Richard L. Gaver were absent during the vote. Gaver showed up late to the meeting due to a Boy Scouts commitment. Apple Valley held the contract during the 2009-10 fiscal year.

“Our president wants the Israeli boundary line to go back to what it was in 1967. Does that mean we have to give Texas back to Mexico?” — Cearfoss “President Obama is our president, like it or not. He’ll be re-elected, like it or not. I’ll have my ‘Obama for President’ sign stolen from my front yard again, like it or not. I’m proud to be an American, a veteran, a Christian and liberal in my views — like it or not.” ...