With the improved weather of spring comes the annual cleanouts that provide merchandise for yard sales. But at the end of the sale, the merchant may find a lot of goods still left unsold. With many towns closing their solid waste disposal sites, the quandry of what to do with unwanted furniture, clothing and other items becomes a vexing problem.

Two Penobscot County towns have come up with an innovative solution to this perpetual problem, which also provides a much-needed source of household items for low-income families.

Veazie and Hampden each opened barns as a way to recycle items that still may have value in the right hands. The barns have met with varying degrees of success. Veazie’s barn closed last year; Hampden’s is still operating, but may be closed when the town switches to a curbside recycling program.

Veazie Town Manager Bill Reed said the barn, which is an open shed with shelving, did help the town.

“People could look through it and bring goods and services,” Reed said. `It helped the lower-income people, especially on children’s clothes.”

But rules about how to dispose of items were not followed. Some vandalism occurred and long weekends posed a special problem.

“One particular site was just a mess,” Reed said. “What we were told by the police was that some small children were in there trying on all the clothes and throwing all the stuff on the floor. Later some rain got in and made all the stuff not very usable.”

Some of the items, Reed continued, placed the unsupervised children and the Public Works employees who had to clean the barn in danger. Broken glass was a problem. Some people used the site to dispose of used motor oil and soiled diapers. People urinated on clothes. And one day, usedneedles were found.

“I don’t want to say it was a hypodermic needle,” Reed said. “It looked like it could be the type of old needle used a number of years ago, a big metal type of syringe, that looked like what a farmer would use on animals.”

Reed said the problem was a lack of supervision. Veazie did not have the money to keep a worker at the barn, especially since it was open around the clock. He would like to see the town recycle items in a more modest way.

“One idea would be a treasure hunt weekend,” he said. “We would allow residents to put out on their front yards items they could swap or give away during that weekend.”

Hampden’s barn, located within its transfer station, has met with more success than Veazie’s.

Hampden Public Works Director Greg Nash attributes the success to supervision.

“It is located at the transfer station and it’s never open unless the transfer station is open,” Nash said. “The transfer station is manned and operates 40 hours a week.”

Nash said that the Hampden barn recycles items such as clothing, small appliances and furniture. He believes it has helped not only the citizens who use it, but also the town of Hampden by reducing solid waste.

Despite its success, there is a good chance that Hampden’s barn will be closed.

Nash said that Hampden plans to go to a curbside recycling system to encourage recycling by citizens who might not be willing to drive all the way to the transfer station. The transfer station itself will be closed.

He would like to find a way around losing the barn, perhaps by relocating it.

Reed suggested that several smaller towns could pool their resources, creating a shared barn. Both Reed and Nash agreed, though, that the key to a successful barn is adequate supervision.

“It has to be policed,” Nash said. “I’ve found with the whole recycling program that you cannot leave it up to the public. It is really sad.”