Letters To The Independent Expressing Outrage Over Cancellation Of Fall Brush Pick-Up

This letter appearing online today and in print tomorrow in The Independent sums up how some residents feel towards the notion that Middletown has decided to suspend the fall brush collection and fine anyone putting debris curbside this year.

It just happens to be a nice and coincidental accompaniment to my earlier post.

I have been living in Middletown since January of 2003 and have a totally different view of the brush collection than what was described in the Aug. 11 issue of the Independent (Brush collection at issue in Middletown).

The leaf collections in my district have usually been designated around Nov. 1 of the year. The leaves don’t start falling until Oct. 30 and aren’t finished falling until Dec. 1. I don’t have anything to put out on Nov. 1. It’s unrealistic to think that a leaf pickup can be made around Nov. 1; in general, the leaves haven’t fallen and been gathered until around Thanksgiving.

As long as I can remember, there has been a brush pickup around the third week in August. No one is even thinking about pruning anything during the dog days of August, but since it’s been that way for the past eight years, I started to work in my yard around Aug. 1. I didn’t put anything out, because I was waiting to get the flier in the mail giving the dates. When it didn’t arrive, I checked the Middletown website and it was frozen for about two weeks because a new website was being initiated.

When I didn’t receive my tax bill in the mail, I decided to check for tax information on the Middletown website. While I was looking for the tax deadlines, I saw there was a notice that the brush pickups had been completed and as of July 20, the pickup was suspended until next spring. It came as a complete surprise to me.

As I walked around the area, I mentioned the pickup suspension to neighbors and friends, and no one knew there was going to be a suspension of the brush pickup until the spring.

Your article mentions that some people have put brush out. Of course they have; after all, they’ve been living here for years and there’s always been a brush pickup around the third week in August. No notices have gone out to state otherwise. Surely they could have put a notice in with the tax statements and bills.

The winter of 2009-10 was particularly brutal — ice storms, heavy snow, high winds. There was a tremendous amount of damage in Middletown; it seemed no one escaped it. Our property had huge pine limbs down, from my yard, from neighbors’ yards, blocking sidewalks; everywhere you looked therewere problems. In late February as soon as the snow melted, my husband and I started to make some progress to fix fences, cut limbs and pile up debris on our property. Then on March 13 we had a horrendous wind and rainstorm and that morning when we opened our garage door we had a huge pine tree come down. Thankfully there was no one harmed, no damage to the property, but still a huge tree down.

A leaf pickup had been scheduled for March 18 because the leaf pickup in this area had been in early November and no one had leaves out then because there wasn’t much down at that time. Most of the leaves had been crushed and frozen, so there wasn’t much to put out. Then on the night of March 17, as my husband and I returned from dinner out, there was a message from the township on our answering machine. It was 8 p.m., March 17, and there was a message on my phone that the pickup for leaves and brush would begin on the morning of March 18. We couldn’t believe our ears. The next morning my husband left for work at 6 a.m., and at 7 a.m. I started hauling the logs, limbs, leaves, brush, you name it, out to the street.

By 10:30 a.m. I was exhausted, and there they were, doing the pickup. Maybe 10 percent of it was out. What was I to now do with the 90 percent that remained, including a huge pine tree that needed to be chopped up? That Saturday morning, some friends came to help us and they had a truck and helped us get the debris to the dump. We had gotten a huge 14-hour notice on the pickup — someone must have gotten a big laugh out of that, but believe me, it wasn’t me.


Yes, people do put brush and leaves out too early sometimes — it happens. It seems that not too much thought goes into the scheduling of these pickups and there’s a sincere lack of organization and planning. I have registered on the township website and I have gotten alerts about storms and electric problems, and I think I should have gotten a phone message or an email alert about the suspension of the fall brush pickup. Now I’ve been spending my time breaking brush up into plastic bags and bringing it toKane’s Lane and cleaning my car out after every pickup. Thanks a bunch, Middletown!

Now let’s get to the point of fines. I’d like to fine someone for not picking up my spring pickup until the last week of June this year. That was a disgrace! It was a traffic hazard and a pedestrian hazard, especially where there are no sidewalks. Maybe the citizens should start fining government and things will get straightened out.

Anne and Tom Cafiero Middletown