Current township vehicles can’t travel in some areas of town where residents live on dirt or rural roads with low tree canopies.
While most residents in Evesham Township simply have to place their trash cans in front of their house once a week to have their trash collected, some have to do a little more work.
In some areas of town where residents live on dirt or rural roads with low tree canopies, each week residents are forced to collect their trash cans and bring them to the nearest intersection where their street meets a more developed road.
Yet if Evesham Township manager Tom Czerniecki has his way, soon those residents will have their trash collected in front of their homes the same as other residents.
At this week’s meeting, town council approved the first reading of an ordinance re-appropriating a $205,000 balance left over from a previous capital bond. Czerniecki said about half will go toward the purchase of a pickup truck and small size trash compactor that can be fitted to the back of the truck.
“Just imagine a miniature trash truck. In fact, it’s so small you put it on the body of a bigger truck,” Czerniecki said.
If approved by council at a future meeting, Czerniecki said the purchase would finally give the township’s public works employees a sanitation vehicle that can be maneuvered to the homes of residents who live in the more rural and secluded areas of town.
Czerniecki said there were about three or four dirt roads in the township with low tree canopies, with around 70 residents affected by this issue.
Czerniecki said he first began investigating solutions to the problem after the residents along Flamingo Drive reached out to the township with a petition asking if there was any way to simplify their trash collection.
After his research, Czerniecki said none of the vehicles already used by the township would fit, and the process was too expensive to contract to a private company.
According to Czerniecki, the new truck and compactor were the best solution to the problem, and he thanked the residents for their patience.
“We were able to identify a particular type of vehicle that can get in there, and it’ll improve their quality of life greatly,” Czerniecki said.
Czerniecki said the purchase would also ease the burden of residents who are getting a little older and have trouble transporting their trash cans and waste, in some cases needing to use the back of a pickup truck.
In addition to helping the residents directly, Czerniecki said the compactor would be used for some of the township’s parks and public events where trash collection is often complicated by the need to maneuver in smaller areas.
“It’ll be helpful in other respects as well,” Czerniecki said. “It’ll give us a lot of mobility.”
