Middletown Cancels Fall Brush Pick-Up; who will pay to have their brush picked up after Hurricane Irene blows through?

Some may have come to hear that Middletown has suspended its fall brush pick-up this year and will levy a hefty fine on any homeowners placing brush in the street curbside. I would bet however that many more haven’t heard about it.

On July 29th, the Township announced that it was suspending the fall brush pick-up through a newsflash and posting on its website.

During the August 1st Township Workshop meeting a further discussion took place amongst Mayor Fiore, Deputy Mayor Brightbill, Committeeman Gerry Scharfenberger and other township professionals that sighted apathy of residents, the cost to pick-up brush, diminished manpower and the fact that the Fall brush pick-up just isn’t that important.

Furthermore a new and improved brush/leaf ordinance was introduced that puts some teeth into the old brush/leaf ordinance by allowing the Police Department and Code Enforcement Officers to issue summonses of some, as yet undetermined sum. In addition, if the Department of Public Works has to cleanup the improperly placed debris, they will charge the homeowner with the costs of removal and disposal of said debris.

But what will happen to homeowners now that the brush pick-up is canceled, when a hurricane like the upcoming Hurricane Irene, blows through and leaves widespread storm debris and broken tree limbs all over the place; will the Township decide that they must reverse it’s decision and collect fallen debris or just leave homeowners to their own recourses? This isn’t right and seems like way to squeeze residents with a hidden tax to clean up fall brush that has always been part of the residents’ taxes to being with. After all, the cost of gasoline and the amount of roads throughout the township hasn’t changed much from last year; how much additional would it really cost? If you look back to just last year, the Township combined the leaf and brush pick-up in many areas and those on the Township Committee almost fell over backwards, patting themselves on the back and heaping praise on the DPW for completing the job before Christmas.

The same could be done this year.

Another possible solution to the cancelling of the fall brush pick-up altogether and then charging/fining residents if they place debris curbside would be to publish scheduled brush pick-up dates as is normally done, but instead of going house to house picking up brush, have residents call the DPW and inform them of the need for pick-up. In this way the collection can be done efficiently in one or two days as opposed to the several or more days currently scheduled. If after that time, it is found that residents in a given zone have left brush at the curbside do you charge them for pick-up service or send them summonses for non-compliance of the new and improved ordinance.

The past few years the Republican majority in Middletown have ran on slogans like "Taxpayers First" and "New Faces/New Ideas" but all Middletown has gotten is higher taxes and less services from a few new faces that have recycled ideas from others as if they were their own.

If a couple of big storms/hurricanes make it our way before the end of the season there will be a need need for a fall brush pick-up, hopefully that need will not be a burden. All ready stressed residents shouldn't have to pay a hidden tax to have their storm debris collected by the Township when they have become accustomed to this type of public service in the past.

This truly is a "Quality of Life" issue.