Forty Fort dispels misinformation about garbage collection discussion

FORTY FORT — Borough council began its monthly work session Wednesday with a discussion about expanding its garbage collection services, a topic that sparked concern from residents because of misleading information that circulated on social media that said the borough would be voting to ban the use of private haulers.

The foreman of the Public Works Department, Rick Kamus, explained that the borough is looking into expanding its trash collecting services in the near future, which includes possibly offering residents the option of a 95 gallon trash container as well as a bag service so residents have the option of paying per bag instead of paying for a container.

At present, there are 411 residents who use Forty Fort’s trash collection services.

The borough currently offers a 65 gallon can at $335 a year or a 35 gallon can at $285 a year, with a 10% discount for senior citizens and a 5% discount for retired or active military.

Kamus said he hopes to have a formal plan in front of council to vote on next month.

Mayor Brian Thomas floated the idea of possibly getting in contact with the private haulers in the area to coordinate trash pick up days in order to reduce the number of days trash cans are out on the curb.

At least one resident objected to this idea, explaining that having all the haulers pick up on two designated days would cause traffic congestion.

The borough building was packed Monday with residents who were concerned discussion about trash collection would include a vote to eliminate the use of private haulers.

This confusion seemed to stem in part from a Facebook post made by Curry Sanitation on May 11, which read that council “wants to stop all private garbage services, give you no choices except to use borough services only.”

Council President Thomas Murray addressed residents at the beginning of the meeting, stating that a discussion on “possible borough-wide trash collection” was listed on the May 6 agenda for the following meeting, but that “there was no mention of anything being mandated.”

Murray reiterated this later in the meeting, stating that “at no point are we eliminating other services in town.”

It was also mentioned that council previously decided that they did not want to get rid of private collectors back in 2021, when the borough initially began trash collection services.

Many residents still took the opportunity to tell council that they were in favor of healthy competition between collectors and did not want the borough to have a monopoly on trash services.

“We love the people that we’re working with at Prestige and we get very personal service and a lot of us are here to support the freedom to pick and choose who we have as our garbage collectors, ” said Pam Saxton, who resides on Wyoming Avenue.

Also at the meeting, council discussed a traffic study by PennDOT that was done on Wyoming Avenue near the Wyoming Seminary Secondary School after a few rear end crashes that confirmed drivers do driver faster than they should in school zones.

To combat this issue, Thomas said the borough was in contact with the secondary school to put electronic speed signs in place and also purchase more equipment for the police department to make speed enforcement more efficient.

Regarding the proposed plan to connect the multi-purpose trail that starts on River Street in Forty Fort with the Kingston side of the trail, council stated the that grant money received for a section of that project is not sufficient enough to cover the costs.

Borough Manager Bonnie Arnone explained that between the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCRN) grant and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) grant, the borough is still short $184,000 in engineering fees.

The borough was previously granted a one-year extension of the DCRN grant, which was originally set to expire at the end of 2023.

If Forty Fort does not continue with the project, it would have to pay DCRN back around $24,988, which is the amount it already expended on engineering fees.

There was talk of possibly connecting with DCED to expand the scope of the grant, which it has done in the past, in order for the borough to utilize those funds for another project.