Hazardous Waste Day
Saturday morning Hazardous Waste Day was a resounding success according to Fire Chief Michael Cassidy.
Vehicles were lined up in the Miller/ Placentino school parking lots winding their way to the drop off point in the Adams School parking lot. According to Tom Evans of School Street, he waited one hour and fifteen minutes in line.
Fire Chief Michael Cassidy told the HollistonReporter.com that he utilized a parking lot this year that in previous year's had gone unused.
Cassidy, above, said he's never seen as many cars in all the years that he has participated in the event. Access to wait in line was shut off at 11:30am. due to popularity of the event. The gates opened at 9:00am and vehicles were lining up an hour before.
Auxiliary Police Officer Judy Rizolli guided the cars to form a waiting line.
The entrance was at Placentino, not at Adams Middle School as advertised, causing some confusion. The vehicles then slowly snaked through the school roads to the disposal site at Adams. A driver commented that the many idling vehicles were adding pollution to the air.
Along the way, inspectors confirmed residents' addresses, and the contents of the disposal items. Above, John Varga, of the Recycling Committee checked the ID and maintained statistics.
Auxiliary Police Officer Judy Gray controlled the vehicles as they finally reached the disposal destination site.
The hazardous waste maximum collection for the day was realized before the scheduled closing at noon, and many residents were turned away, to their dismay. Over 300 residents took advantage of this annual Hazardous Waste Disposal Day.
Be prepared for another busy day in 2016.
Joe, In 2014, the event was basically full in about an hour, which is one reason why I think people were lined up early this year. This year we increased funding by 50% and almost made it to the scheduled noon closing. When I talked to Chief Cassidy on Saturday it was clear we need to expand the program further. While I don't think we will do it monthly, we will definitely consider doing it more than once a year. The Fincom will be looking into additional funding for this as we start to put together the FY17 budget in the coming months.
Ken Szajda | 2015-07-14 09:08:39
Since this is such a popular annual event, and as indicated in the article everyone could not be served, it should be scheduled on a more frequent basis. In fact, our neighboring town of Ashland runs their hazardous collection day on a monthly basis.
Joe Wiesenfeld | 2015-07-13 07:48:12