Recycling violators to draw fines

PITTSFIELD – Pittsfield’s Town Council enacted an emergency ordinance Tuesday night aimed at halting trash disposal in the town’s satellite recycling containers.

Several weeks ago, in an apparent protest against the town’s new mandatory recycling program, household rubbish was stuffed in containers at Grove Hill and Somerset Plaza.

Not only did it take transfer station attendants hours to clean out the containers and public works employees time to clean up the area around the containers, some recyclables were damaged, making them unsalable.

At a council meeting two weeks ago, councilors expressed their outrage at the deliberate act of vandalism and asked that immediate action be taken.

The new ordinance assesses a $250 fine for a first offense and a $500 fine for a second offense. It also prohibits household rubbish from being placed in privately leased Dumpsters and in town-owned litter containers in the downtown section and in Manson Park.

The town’s mandatory recycling program has been in effect since Oct. 1, and a revenue report handed out Tuesday night shows its effectiveness.

Income for the recycling center for 2000 was projected at $27,000. As of Nov. 10, nearly $51,000 in revenue has been brought in through the sale of recycled materials.

In other business, councilors refused a gift of land along the Sebasticook River, just south of the Pioneer Dam, from Dale and Kristen Penney, citing worries about maintenance and future development costs.

The Penneys had offered the land, the site of a former mill that has since burned and been razed, last September as a youth park.

They hoped to foster interest in a skateboarding facility as well as a park for fishing. But councilors asked the skateboard coalition, led by Anna Peterson, for more information about plans for the park.

Neither the Penneys nor Peterson attended Tuesday night’s meeting, and councilors noted that support for a skateboard park appears to have fizzled out.

Calling the offer, “a generous gesture,” councilors questioned the town’s need for the and.

D. Dwight Dogherty, town manager, said some issues regarding safety and liability had not been resolved.

Councilor Peter “Andi” Vigue noted that Penney had said at the September meeting that he had other buyers interested in developing the property if the town was not. The vote not to accept the property was unanimous.

After the regular meeting, the council began its first 2001 budget workshop, starting with the proposed capital budget. Missing from that gathering were councilors-elect Jack Wright and Len Macdaid, and lame duck councilors Tom Cote and Kathy Brattoya.