BOH wants selectmen to address illegal dumping of trash
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Staff Reporter

The abandoned boat left on Wares Road in September 2006 illustrates a growing problem of trash being left on the side of the roads in Ashby, according to Board of Health Chairwoman Mary Krapf. File Photo

Some town officials are concerned by the increasing number of large trash items being left along the edge of town streets.

Mary Krapf, the Board of Health's chairwoman, is going to ask selectmen at their Wednesday, Jan. 10 meeting what they can do to help solve the problem.

"It's a real problem that has fallen on the Board of Health," she said. "It's still happening and nobody is doing anything,"

Krapf said she is receiving many calls about trash on the side of the road. The police and highway departments also get many trash-related calls, she said.

She said people call because they don't want to see the trash on their street, but they don't want to bring it to the transfer station and pay for the disposal of someone else's rubbish.

"They dump it everywhere," she said.

The trash isn't simply empty coffee cups or full trash bags but large items that are hard to move and hard to transport, Krapf said. The biggest? A boat that was left on the side of the road with its trailer.

While a discarded boat is uncommon, sofas, chairs, and washing machines are not, Krapf said.

"Mattresses have been a real problem," she said. "There are all types of things that people want to get rid of and they don't want to pay for."

She said that people dump a lot of things onto Ridge Road and Mayo Road. Unfortunately, once something is left on a parcel of land, it then belongs to the land owner, Krapf.

"People complain, but you don't see them picking it up," she said. "If it's on your land you own it."

Krapf said the problem, which has worsened in her last 10 years she on the board, rests with the fact the town doesn't have curbside pick-up.

If residents want curbside trash pick-up then they have to hire a private company. The transfer station, which residents need a permit to use, has been open for about two years, Krapf said. The station is open on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month.

"It has gotten worse and worse and worse," she said. "When we had the landfill open people were more likely to bring [trash] over."

This is not the first time Krapf has brought up the issue. Voters failed to pass a proposed bylaw that would have granted police the right to fine someone for illegally dumping.

" P e o p l e don't want to pay so they didn't pass it," Krapf said.

Neither the transfer station or the Board of Health can hire someone to pick everything up unless they get more money in their budgets.

K r a p f hopes selectmen

will come up with a resolution to the problem, because she wants to be able to remove the plastic gloves out of her car that she uses to pick up roadside trash.

She said the transfer station is under the jurisdiction of the Board of Health, but both departments' budgets are so small there is no wiggle room for extra jobs.

Krapf is concerned that bringing the issue up for discussion may cause it to get worse before it gets better.