Upper Nazareth Township Meetings

Recycling Meeting – October 20, 2016

Because of a proposal about moving Upper Nazareth to a single trash hauler, the township supervisors held an educational meeting for the public. Several people presented.

Cindy Otis—Recycling coordinator

At the moment residents subscribe with multiple haulers. This is bad for grants and also for township infrastructure. The township can’t make sure every resident is getting curbside service or is participating in recycling. They also aren’t sure of how many haulers are working in the area.

ACT 101 now affects Upper Nazareth due to our increase in population. Pennsylvania passed this law in anticipation of a shortage of landfills. There are two incentives in the form of grants if the township is in compliance with this Act.

• 902 grants provide money to townships for education and equipment (i.e. chippers, leaf vacuums, etc.)
• 904 grants provide money based on how much recycling an area collects. This money can be used for anything and helps local governments reduce taxes.

Betty Williams

Betty talked about a survey which was done in 2013, in which the majority of respondents expressed an interest into moving to a single hauler system. In 2013, there were 14 different haulers collecting trash and the average price for residents was $30/month. A single hauler would have dropped the cost to $20/month but the supervisors voted it down.

Supervisor Scott Sylvanius

Scott talked about the damage trucks can cause. A three-axle garbage truck weighs 20,000 pounds in the front and 44,000 pounds in the rear.  One truck affects the roads as much as 1,409 cars.

Upper Nazareth is looking at replacing roads at a cost of $1 million dollars per mile. The township needs to replace at least seven miles of roads and may not have the money to do so.

Bud Donnell

Bud talked about issues with spills and noise. Because the township doesn’t know all of the haulers in the area they can’t track who leaves spills of garbage juice or hydraulic fluid. They also don’t know who is collecting trash at 2 or 3 in the morning.

• Ordinance 505 limits above average noise activities to the hours between 6 AM and 9 PM.

Questions from the audience

One resident wanted to know why the single-hauler idea was voted down in 2013.

• The perception is the supervisors didn’t understand the ramifications of their vote at the time and that a large number people attended the meeting and said they wanted to choose their own hauler.

A resident asked about implementation.

• If the supervisors vote for it, the manager thought it could take place within a six to twelve months.

Two owners of trash hauling companies attended. One angrily said that it is the police’s job to enforce the laws on haulers who aren’t collecting recycling. Scott Sylvanius said the whole problem is they don’t know who is hauling trash in the township.

Yvonne, who owns Herceg Hauling pointed out that trash is taxed at $4/ton which raises $160 million a year. This is how the state pay grants to townships. She warned about the supervisors using scare tactics which drew an angry response from several residents who insisted they want Upper Nazareth to be in compliance with Act 101 and to preserve the township’s land. With a single hauler, every resident will have to pay and get their garbage picked up.

 

Becky Bartlett is an Upper Nazareth resident and covers these meetings because residents have a right to be informed about what their government is doing.