Cleaning up problems with Sanitary District

Officials from Sanitary District 1 admitted that with nearly 20,000 homes and approximately 50,000 residents in their coverage area of the Five Towns, Woodsburgh, North Woodmere as well as parts of Lynbrook and Valley Stream, that not every resident is going to be happy with the service.

“With 18,000 homes, there are going to be problems,” said Board of Commissioners member Frank Argento. The district processes an estimated 39,000 tons of solid waster annually.

Argento and Assistant Superintendent George Pappas attended the March 9 meeting of the Lawrence Association at the Lawrence Yacht and Country Club and answered questions and addressed resident concerns about trash and recycle pickup.

Beginning at 6:30 a.m. during the week trash (two times) and recyclable (once a week) pickup is done with 15 trucks in the residential areas and three for commercial pickup. District 1 is one of the few that provides backyard pickups and has the lowest tax rate in Nassau County, Pappas said.

Though residents applauded that fact, they still registered complaints ranging from a missing recycling pail to workers leaving the top of their garbage container open.

Myrna Breitman, a 40-year resident and the Lawrence Association’s corresponding secretary, said the sanitation workers used to be fabulous but they’re now taking short cuts such as dumping numerous home’s bags in the middle of the street so they can do one pick up instead of house-to-house pick-up.

“It’s very difficult to do the right thing when you have workers trying to take short cuts,” she said. “But I have faith in Frank and George that they will be able to cure the problem because the village is too beautiful to be messed up with garbage.”

Pappas said he is in charge of 110 employees and that the district has reprimanded and suspended workers for taking short cuts and not following protocol. “We expect the same things you expect,” he said. “We want our employees to operate so you won’t even know they’ve been there.”

Dr. Noel Kleppel said he’s gone three weeks without a pickup and has the sanitary district’s number memorized because he’s called so much. “When you call them, they’re extremely responsive but we shouldn’t have to call,” he said. “They have to anticipate problems so they don’t occur.”

Lawrence Association’s next meeting is Wednesday, April 13 at 8 p.m. at the Lawrence Yacht and Country Club.