Doyle says uncollected bulk garbage spoiling Carbonear’s clean image

By Mark Squibb

Carbonear councillor Danielle Doyle says she has received a number of inquires from residents over the last few months regarding untidy properties.

“They appear to have things out for bulk garbage pick up and months and months and months and months later, there’s still chesterfields, furniture, a load of stuff out for bulk pickup,” said Doyle, who noted in one case it appeared bulk garbage had been left out for at least a year.

Doyle said she knows staff sends letters to property owners asking them to tidy up, but in the meantime, the messes make the community look bad.

“Some of these are on busy streets, and you drive by a dozen times a day and you see all this stuff out,” said the councillor, who asked that someone on council outline the process for having such messes dealt with.

Deputy Mayor Sam Slade said some people tend to continue putting bulk garbage out even when there is no upcoming pickup date, and the Town has no control over when they do it.

Slade added the Town is fortunate the Harbour Grace dump is so close by. The site is maintained by the Eastern Regional Service Board as a sort of waystation for bulk items that eventually go to Robin Hood Bay.

“Years ago, our biggest concern here was people having to hold on to that kind of stuff and leaving it in their basement and filling their basements up, because we had nowhere (to dump garbage),” said Slade. “When we would do the annual bulk pickup, that’s when it all used to come up out of the basements. But we’re very fortunate now because we have that site up there and it’s only a matter of throwing the garbage aboard the back of the truck and going. You can go into the site, and it doesn’t cost a thing to go in.”

Slade allowed there’s nothing worse than a couch left on the side of road, especially for months on end, and that the Town does what it can to curb such messes.

“But lots of times, if you remove that one, by and by, there’s another one put there in its place,” said Slade. “So, I know it’s very difficult to control. People don’t like to see that around; it makes the town look untidy.”

Town Manager Cynthia Davis acknowledged there may be different circumstances as to why garbage is left out, but noted that garbage not collected during bulk pickup is the responsibility of the homeowner.

“When the Town becomes aware, the enforcement office will make contact with the property owners,” said Davis. “We try and give them a reasonable time to remove it and if it’s not removed, we do have a process. We will write them first, and then the final step is an order. But we try and work with people and hopefully they address it before it comes to that.”

Davis said people have sometimes called the Town outside of a collection period because they do not have access to a truck and have bulk garbage that needs disposal. In that instance, the Town will pass along the collector’s contact information so that the residents can reach out to the company directly.

Bulk garbage collection is halted during the winter months and will resume in the spring.