More on trash and holidays

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

To recap:
* Yesterday was a municipal holiday in Somerville which supposedly means that trash pickup is delayed by one day for the entire week.
* However, some people reported that their trash was picked up yesterday, per the usual (non-holiday) schedule.
* Yesterday afternoon I posted in this community saying that I had received email from the city confirming that yesterday's trash pickup was in error and that pickups would indeed be delayed this week.
* But this morning orbitalmechanic posted in a comment on the aforementioned post, saying that her trash was picked up today, on the usual (non-holiday) schedule.

I've just had another email exchange with Sean Murphy, Director of "Constituent Services" for the city. He now tells me that the trash vendor does go around the regular-day streets, after picking up on the holiday schedule, and collects any trash that was erroneously put out by people who didn't know/remember about the holiday. They do this to reduce clutter and so forth. So, in other words, on a Tuesday of a holiday week, they would collect the Monday streets first (per holiday schedule) and then drive around the Tuesday streets just to get whatever is out; and then they would do the Tuesday streets again on Wednesday, per holiday schedule. Clear as mud?

In any case, Mr. Murphy asked me my opinion of this, whether I think it makes sense to do it this way. So I put it to you as well. What do you think?

Personally I can see both sides. The city is in a bit of a bind here: if they delay the pickups, there will always be at least a few people who forget or don't realize it's a holiday, so we wind up with trash sitting out for a whole extra day. But if they pick up on a Tuesday street on Tuesday, all the residents who thought they were supposed to put trash out on Wednesday get confused (and potentially angry). Then those people are likely to not put their trash out at all, and be angry all over again when the truck comes again on Wednesday!

Thoughts?

BTW, you can email Sean Murphy yourself if you like: smurphy@ci.somerville.ma.us

Sorry to take up so much of your friends-list with trash talk ;)

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

"A more constructive suggestion would be that Somerville share a printed schedule of pickups with both residents and the trash company in advance"

They did. As I noted at the time Bunker Hill Day was noted as a holiday in one place but not in another on that print out (on the calendar but not on the list of holidays or vice versa? Can't remember now.)

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

Bunker Hill Day was noted on the list of holidays but not on the calendar (where it was highlighted as if it was a day that would include yard waste pick-up). I wondered if maybe this, or just the fact that few people are aware of or get work off for Bunker Hill Day, was the reason for the call from Tom Champion. I don't remember ever getting a call about a Monday holiday and trash pick-up before.