Beginning to clean up the trash complaints

Many of the new initiatives that originally came out of a Lawrence Association meeting between Sanitary District 1 representatives and residents at the Lawrence Yacht & Country Club in November are being implemented, according to James Vilardi, the district’s Board of Commissioners chair.

The plan entitled, “2012 and beyond,” will address the need for an updated computer system, staff realignment and budgeting procedures and will be discussed on Friday by representatives from the superintendent’s office, board of commissioners, union and sanitation workers. “We will have a full discussion of issues pertaining to service,” Vilardi said.

Since November, Vilardi has spent more than three hours walking door-to-door on weekends talking to residents about their experience with the sanitation district’s service. “I’ve gotten a good response and I’m happy about that,” he said. “Residents generally seem satisfied with our service.”

Vilardi added that if a resident wasn’t home while he was visiting homes in the Five Towns, he would leave his business card so they could call and discuss their experience. “Several have called me and I was surprised,” he said. “Over the past month we have really started very serious dialogue about service with our men and I’ve noticed a decline in complaints in

my email.”

Recommendations that came out of November’s meeting included workers wearing nametags, adding another foreman to supervise the routes and holding collectors more accountable, all of which Vilardi said have been fully implemented.

“We are now in the process of negotiating for a new uniform contract which will have nametags on the shirts once we settle on a new company,” he said. “Also, when people call our office, people answer with their names so residents know who they are speaking to. We are also in the process of installing a new phone system to advise residents about any changes in schedules due to a holiday. We’re trying to increase customer service as much as we can.”

During the last two years, Woodmere resident, Arthur Greenspan has written many emails to Sanitary District 1 officials, all of which he said went unanswered. Last winter, his yellow recycling can was never picked up at his home for four months while he was in Florida. “Upon pick up, garbage cans are left in the driveway, the street and all of the time are uncovered,” he said. “You can go in any direction and see garbage in the streets that wasn’t there prior to Sanitary District 1 doing their job. It’s disgusting!”

Greenspan, who went to Florida on Dec. 15 and returned in mid-January, came back to find the same garbage cans were still outside and not picked up as well as three of his garbage cans had no lids on them, were full of water and damaged. “I called (the Sanitary District) office

and the garbage was picked up the next day,” he said.

Margaret Carpenter, a more than 70-year resident in Lawrence, has had the opposite experience as Greenspan. “I find them marvelous,” she said. “I know the guys who come to me and they are very careful and put the lids on.”

Carpenter, a member of the Lawrence Association, said she maintains contact with Board of Commissioners Frank Argento. “I think the Sanitary District trustees are listening,” she said. “They have a special collection for Passover at the Lawrence railroad station and they notify the village of the day and time of that pickup. That’s an accommodation from our Sanitary District.”

Vilardi has begun attending village meetings such as Hewlett Harbor and Woodsburgh to hear from residents. “We feel like internally complaints are way down and customer service is up since we had the Lawrence Association meeting (in November),” he said. “We know we have to satisfy our customers who are getting the service because they are paying the bills.”

When asked if there are any changes he’d like the sanitary district to make, Greenspan said he would like to see more consistency in pick-ups and the lids put back on garbage cans. “Maybe one day Sanitary District 1 will respond to our needs which are basic and what we pay taxes for,” he said.