By Sarah Pellis
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The Washington Township Board of Supervisors addressed residents’ concerns about their new garbage collection company, Fayette Waste, during Wednesday’s monthly meeting.
Fayette Waste started collecting garbage in the township on March 1, and many residents, including Denise Hamer, came out to the meeting to address some concerns.
The township worked with Big’s Sanitation in the past, and they didn’t charge for vacant houses —unlike Fayette Waste — who has been charging Hamer a fee at a vacant house she uses for storage.
“We have never, ever been charged for vacant houses. I had to fill out a vacancy report and I never heard anything from them,” Hamer said. “If I am not having garbage picked up then why do I have to pay for it?”
Solicitor Jack Purcell said if the house is still usable and generating garbage, most municipalities would charge for sanitation.
“Most municipalities approach it like they want to make it black and white. The way they make it black and white is if they have electricity, water and garbage. Otherwise you get into all these gray areas.”
Hamer said she is in an unusual situation since she uses the house for storage and has to have running water and electricity for the hose and to drain out flooding in the basement. But, there is no usable bathroom.
She asked for a possible deduction in her sanitation charge due to not using much garbage, and Purcell said he would reach out to Fayette Waste to discuss the issue further because it is not in their contract for issues with vacant houses.
“You look at most utilities to determine whether the place has the potential of generating garbage,” Purcell said. “It’s not just generating, but the potential to generate. You can have a storage facility that generates garbage. You don’t have to live there to generate garbage, you just have to be there occasionally doing work there. That’s kind of the theory behind it. Same can be said for elderly people where they don’t charge as much.”
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