Too much garbage sparks rift in Pittsfield Council seeks solution for 200 bags of trash

PITTSFIELD – Harvey Elderkin found himself caught between a rock and a hard place last weekend when he attempted to clean up what he admits was a very messy yard.

“I knew I had to clean it up,” he said Tuesday. “It was a mess.” So Elderkin borrowed a friend’s pickup truck, spent hours loading it and drove about 200 bags of household trash that had been accumulating all winter to the dump. Once there, however, he was told he could not unload.

At some point, everyone involved agreed, things grew a bit hot, some unpleasant statements were made, and eventually the police were called.

“[Transfer Station manager] Donny Chute accused me of bringing in other people’s trash,” Elderkin said. “He also said that he couldn’t accept the trash because the truck I was using had commercial plates.”

Elderkin, who said he did not want a confrontation, said he had no choice but to take the trash – about two truckloads full – back to his Wright Street home and dump it on the ground.

“The very next day, I got a letter from the town’s code enforcement officer telling me I had to clean up my yard,” he said.

Frustrated, Elderkin brought his problem to town councilors Tuesday night.

Town Manager Kathryn Ruth told councilors that special accommodations had been offered Sunday and that Elderkin had been told he could bring the trash back that day after regular dump hours.

But Elderkin dug in his heels. “I’m not handling that trash again,” he maintained. “I’ve loaded and unloaded it. Now the town can pick it up.”

Mayor Tim Nichols told Elderkin that the town recognized that he was trying to clean up his yard. “We’ll work with you, Harvey,” Nichols said.

Elderkin was invited to come into the town office today to work on a solution.

Reached after the Town Council meeting Tuesday night, Chute said he and Elderkin do not agree about whether there was a confrontation, and Chute maintains that Elderkin threatened him.

“Once he threatened me, I left and then my employee called me and said [Elderkin and two friends] were still blocking the area and I told him to call the police.

“It was not the issue of a commercial truck, it was that if he dumped his 200 bags, we would have filled the bins and we would have had to shut down. Sunday is our busiest day of the week. We get more people in on the four hours on Sunday than on Monday, Wednesday and Friday combined,” Chute said.

He said he was not informed ahead of time that a large load was coming in or he would have made sure Elderkin could have been accommodated. “We have rules we have to follow,” Chute said.

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