When communities as a whole are in trouble, as Westchester, Putnam and Rockland have been with Hurricane Sandy and the snow storm following, it's almost impossible to identify all the "angels" who come to our aid. But they've appeared in legions.
This story involves trash collection in my community, Yorktown, and other communities where garbage has built up, both from spoiled food and waterlogged trash.
“Garbage this week was double what we would normally experience because of all the spoiled food and the fact that much trash was waterlogged and therefore heavier,” said Anthony Carbone, general manager of CRP Sanitation which has served my town for its trash hauling for seven years.
As the storm approached on Monday, Oct. 29, CRP did regular pick up, but on Tuesday, the day of the storm, Yorktown Police asked CRP not to put their trucks on the road because of all the downed trees and the necessity of emergency vehicles on the road. “So for those who get pickups on Tuesdays and Fridays, there hasn’t been a pickup since Oct. 26,” Carbone explained, ” But we’re doing that today (Tuesday) and there is twice as much volume as there would be on an ordinary day.”
Carbone reports that CRP added three extra trucks with 14 additional men for trash collection, along with two additional men for the recyclable truck and the cardboard pickup truck to clean-up the extra debris from the prior week and the storm.
“We needed the extra men because a pail that would normally weighs 40 pounds would weigh as much as 80 pounds with all the waterlogged trash and extra spoiled food,” Carbone said. “Each truck on the road yesterday picked up twice their normally load of and each had to make two trips to the dump.”
Nick Bianco, Yorktown Town Councilman said, “CRP has been so helpful to us in providing exceptional service with more men and equipment, all on a voluntary basis. We’re so glad that they have the resources and the community commitment to do this. They picked up my garbage just today…and I had a lot of it. Further, they contributed their extra service to our community and did not charge us for it.”
“We take our responsibility to the Town very seriously,” Carbone responded. “Fortunately, a company of our size has the personnel and equipment to react quickly to exceptional situations like this. Yesterday, the management and sales staff members were all out on the road with the extra trucks, including my uncle and my dad Ronnie, the CEO of the company!”
This was done despite CRP’s own woes from the storm. With its facilities located in Cortlandt Manor on the banks of the Hudson, CRP experienced 18 inches of water in its offices, destroying many of their computers, and four feet of water in their yard where equipment is parked.
“But we weathered through as best we could to honor our commitment to Yorktown to remove garbage safely and in a timely way,” Carbone said.
Bill Primavera is a marketing consultant and realtor who writes regularly as The Home Guru. He can be reached directly at 914-522-2076.
